Page:Hardy - Jude the Obscure, 1896.djvu/334

 the papers, further than by name in a long list of other undefended cases.

"Now then, Sue, at any rate, you can do what you like!" He looked at his sweetheart curiously.

"Are we―you and I—just as free now as if we had never married at all?"

"Just as free—except, I believe, that a clergyman may object personally to re-marry you, and hand the job on to somebody else."

"But I wonder—do you think it is really so with us? I know it is generally. But I have an uncomfortable feeling that my freedom has been obtained under false pretences!"

"How?"

"Well, if the truth about us had been known, the decree wouldn't have been pronounced. It is only, is it, because we have made no defence, and have led them into a false supposition? Therefore is my freedom lawful, however proper it may be?"

"Well—why did you let it be under false pretences? You have only yourself to blame," he said, mischievously.

"Jude—don't! You ought not to be touchy about that still. You must take me as I am."

"Very well, darling, so I will. Perhaps you were right. As to your question, we were not obliged to prove anything. That was their business. Anyhow, we are living together."

"Yes; though not in their sense."

"One thing is certain, that however brought about, a marriage is dissolved when it is dissolved. There is this advantage in being poor, obscure people like us—that these things are done for us in a rough-and-ready fashion. It was the same with me and Arabella. I was afraid her criminal second marriage would have been discovered, and she punished; but nobody took any interest in her—nobody inquired, nobody suspected it. If we'd been patented nobilities we should have had infinite trouble,