Page:Hardy - Jude the Obscure, 1896.djvu/330

 shall be better able to bear it alone. I may as well tell you that what has suggested my letting her go is some news she brought me—the news that Fawley is doing the same."

"Oh, he had a spouse, too? A queer couple, these lovers!"

"Well—I don't want your opinion on that. What I was going to say is that my liberating her can do her no possible harm, and will open up a chance of happiness for her which she has never dreamed of hitherto. For then they'll be able to marry, as they ought to have done at first."

Gillingham did not hurry to reply. "I may disagree with your motive," he said, gently, for he respected views he could not share. "But I think you are right in your determination—if you can carry it out. I doubt, however, if you can."