Page:Hardy - Jude the Obscure, 1896.djvu/372

 man. That's what some women fail to see; and instead of protesting against the conditions, they protest against the man, the other victim—just as a woman in a crowd will abuse the man who crushes against her, when he is only the helpless transmitter of the pressure put upon him."

"Yes; some are like that, instead of uniting with the man against the common enemy, coercion." The bride and bridegroom had by this time driven off, and the two moved away with the rest of the idlers. "No, don't let's do it," she continued—"at least, just now."

They reached home, and, passing the window arm-in-arm, saw the widow looking out at them. "Well," cried their guest, when they entered, "I said to myself when I zeed ye coming so loving up to the door, 'They made up their minds at last, then!

They briefly hinted that they had not.

"What! and ha'n't ye really done it? Chok' it all, that I should have lived to see a good old saying like 'marry in haste and repent at leisure' spoiled like this by you two! 'Tis time I got back again to Marygreen—sakes if tidden—if this is what the new notions be leading us to! Nobody thought o' being afeard o' matrimony in my time, nor of much else but a cannon-ball or empty cupboard! Why, when I and my poor man were married we thought no more o't than of a game o' dibs!"

"Don't tell the child when he comes in," whispered Sue, nervously. "He'll think it has all gone on right, and it will be better that he should not be surprised and puzzled. Of course, it is only put off for reconsideration. If we are happy as we are, what does it matter to anybody?"