Page:Hardy - Jude the Obscure, 1896.djvu/494

 he recognized the note of ordinary wedlock; and concluding that they must be respectable, said no more.

Jude did not get any better, and one day he requested Arabella, with considerable hesitation, to execute a commission for him. She asked him, indifferently, what it was.

"To write to Sue."

"What in the name—do you want me to write to her for?"

"To ask how she is, and if she'll come to see me, because I'm ill, and should like to see her—once again."

"It is like you to insult a lawful wife by asking such a thing!"

"It is just in order not to insult you that I ask you to do it. You know I love Sue. I don't wish to mince the matter—there stands the fact: I love her. I could find a dozen ways of sending a letter to her without your knowledge. But I wish to be quite above-board with you and with her husband. A message through you asking her to come is at least free from any odor of intrigue. If she retains any of her old nature at all, she'll come."

"You've no respect for marriage whatever, or its rights and duties!"

"What does it matter what my opinions are—a wretch like me! Can it matter to anybody in the world who comes to see me for half an hour—here with one foot in the grave! ... Come, please write, Arabella!" he pleaded. "Repay my candor by a little generosity!"

"I should think not!"

"Not just once? Oh, do!" He felt that his physical weakness had taken away all his dignity.

"What do you want her to know how you are for? She don't want to see 'ee. She's the rat that forsook the sinking ship!"

"Don't, don't!"

"And I stuck to un—the more fool I! Have that strumpet in the house, indeed!"

Almost as soon as the words were spoken Jude sprang