Page:Hardy - Jude the Obscure, 1896.djvu/489

 "But the parson don't know."

"Yes, I told him last night that we might come between eight and nine, as there were reasons of decency for doing it as early and quiet as possible, on account of it being our second marriage, which might make people curious to look on if they knew. He highly approved."

"Oh, very well, I'm ready," said her father, getting up and shaking himself.

"Now, old darling," she said to Jude, "come along, as you promised."

"When did I promise anything?" asked he, whom she had made so tipsy by her special knowledge of that line of business as almost to have made him sober again—or to seem so to those who did not know him.

"Why," said Arabella, affecting dismay, "you've promised to marry me several times as we've sat here tonight. These gentlemen have heard you."

"I don't remember it," said Jude, doggedly. "There's only one woman—but I won't mention her in this Capharnaum!"

Arabella looked towards her father. "Now, Mr. Fawley, be honorable," said Donn. "You and my daughter have been living here together these three or four days, quite on the understanding that you were going to marry her. Of course I shouldn't have had such goings-on in my house if I hadn't understood that. As a point of honor you must do it now."

"Don't say anything against my honor!" enjoined Jude, hotly, standing up. "I'd marry the W I'd marry the W of Babylon rather than do anything dishonorable! No reflection on you, my dear. It is a mere rhetorical figure—what they call in the books, hyperbole."

"Keep your figures for your debts to friends who shelter you," said Donn.

"If I am bound in honor to marry her—as I suppose I am—though how I came to be here with her I know no more than a dead man—marry her I will, so help me