Page:Hardy - Jude the Obscure, 1896.djvu/316

 "How long ago was it you were here? Tell me! tell me!"

"The day before I met you in Christminster, when we went back to Marygreen together. I told you I had met her."

"Yes, you said you had met her, but you didn't tell me all. Your story was that you had met as estranged people, who were not husband and wife at all in Heaven's sight—not that you had made it up with her."

"We didn't make it up," he said, sadly. "I can't explain, Sue."

"You've been false to me; you, my last hope! And I shall never forget it—never!"

"But by your own wish, dear Sue, we are only to be friends, not lovers! It is so very inconsistent of you to—"

"Friends can be jealous!"

"I don't see that. You concede nothing to me, and I have to concede everything to you. After all, you were on good terms with your husband at that time."

"No, I wasn't, Jude. Oh, how can you think so! And you have taken me in, even if you didn't intend to." She was so mortified that he was obliged to take her into her room and close the door, lest the people should hear. "Was it this room? Yes, it was—I see by your look it was! I won't have it for mine. Oh, it was treacherous of you to have her again! I jumped out of the window!"

"But, Sue, she was, after all, my legal wife, if not—"

Slipping down on her knees Sue buried her face in the bed and wept.

"I never knew such an unreasonable—such a dog-in-the-manger feeling," said Jude. "I am not to approach you, nor anybody else!"

"Oh, don't you understand my feeling? Why don't you? Why are you so gross? I jumped out of the window!"

"Jumped out of window?"