THE last pages to which the chronicler of these lives would ask the reader's attention are concerned with the scene in and out of Jude's bedroom when leafy summer came round again.
His face was now so thin that his old friends would hardly have known him. It was afternoon, and Arabella was at the looking-glass curling her hair, which operation she performed by heating an umbrella-stay in the flame of a candle she had lighted, and using it upon the flowing lock. When she had finished this, practised a dimple, and put on her things, she cast her eyes round upon Jude. He seemed to be sleeping, though his position was an elevated one, his malady preventing him lying down.
Arabella, hatted, gloved, and ready, sat down and waited, as if expecting some one to come and take her place as nurse.
Certain sounds from without revealed that the town was in festivity, though little of the festival, whatever it might have been, could be seen here. Bells began to ring, and the notes came into the room through the open window, and travelled round Jude's head in a hum. They made her restless, and at last she said to herself: "Why ever doesn't Father come!"
She looked again at Jude, critically gauged his ebbing life, as she had done so many times during the late months, and glancing at his watch, which was hung up by way of timepiece, rose impatiently. Still he slept, and coming to a resolution she slipped from the room, closed the door noiselessly, and descended the stairs. The house was empty. The attraction which moved Arabella to go abroad had evidently drawn away the other inmates long before.
It was a warm, cloudless, enticing day. She shut the front door, and hastened round into Chief Street, and when near the theatre could hear the notes of the organ, a rehearsal for a coming concert being in progress. She entered under the archway of Oldgate College, where men were putting up awnings round the quadrangle for a ball in the hall that evening. People who had come up from the country for the day were picnicking on the grass, and Arabella walked along the gravel paths and under the aged limes. But finding this place rather dull she returned to the streets, and watched the carriages drawing up for the concert, numerous dons and their wives, and undergraduates with gay female companions, crowding up likewise. When the doors were closed, and the concert began, she moved on.
The powerful notes of that concert rolled forth through the swinging yellow blinds of the open windows, over the housetops, and into the still air of the lanes. They reached so far as to the room in which Jude lay; and it was about this time that his cough began again and awakened him.
As soon as he could speak he murmured, his eyes still closed: "A little water, please."
Nothing but the deserted room received his appeal, and he coughed to exhaustion again--saying still more feebly: "Water--some water--Sue--Arabella!"
The room remained still as before. Presently he gasped again: "Throat--water--Sue--darling--drop of water--please--oh please!"
No water came, and the organ notes, faint as a bee's hum, rolled in as before.
While he remained, his face changing, shouts and hurrahs came from somewhere in the direction of the river.
"Ah--yes! The Remembrance games," he murmured. "And I here. And Sue defiled!"
The hurrahs were repeated, drowning the faint organ notes. Jude's face changed more: he whispered slowly, his parched lips scarcely moving:
"LET THE DAY PERISH WHEREIN I WAS BORN, AND THE NIGHT IN WHICH IT WAS SAID, THERE IS A MAN-CHILD CONCEIVED."
("Hurrah!")
"LET THAT DAY BE DARKNESS; LET NOT GOD REGARD IT FROM ABOVE, NEITHER LET THE LIGHT SHINE UPON IT. LO, LET THAT NIGHT BE SOLITARY, LET NO JOYFUL VOICE COME THEREIN."
("Hurrah!")
"WHY DIED I NOT FROM THE WOMB? WHY DID I NOT GIVE UP THE GHOST WHEN I CAME OUT OF THE BELLY? ... FOR NOW SHOULD I HAVE LAIN STILL AND BEEN QUIET. I SHOULD HAVE SLEPT: THEN HAD I BEEN AT REST!"
("Hurrah!")
"THERE THE PRISONERS REST TOGETHER; THEY HEAR NOT THE VOICE OF THE OPPRESSOR.... THE SMALL AND THE GREAT ARE THERE; AND THE SERVANT IS FREE FROM HIS MASTER. WHEREFORE IS LIGHT GIVEN TO HIM THAT IS IN MISERY, AND LIFE UNTO THE BITTER IN SOUL?"
Meanwhile Arabella, in her journey to discover what was going on, took a short cut down a narrow street and through an obscure nook into the quad of Cardinal. It was full of bustle, and brilliant in the sunlight with flowers and other preparations for a ball here also. A carpenter nodded to her, one who had formerly been a fellow-workman of Jude's. A corridor was in course of erection from the entrance to the hall staircase, of gay red and buff bunting. Waggon-loads of boxes containing bright plants in full bloom were being placed about, and the great staircase was covered with red cloth. She nodded to one workman and another, and ascended to the hall on the strength of their acquaintance, where they were putting down a new floor and decorating for the dance.
The cathedral bell close at hand was sounding for five o'clock service.
"I should not mind having a spin there with a fellow's arm round my waist," she said to one of the men. "But Lord, I must be getting home again-- there's a lot to do. No dancing for me!"
When she reached home she was met at the door by Stagg, and one or two other of Jude's fellow stoneworkers. "We are just going down to the river," said the former, "to see the boat-bumping. But we've called round on our way to ask how your husband is."
"He's sleeping nicely, thank you," said Arabella.
"That's right. Well now, can't you give yourself half an hour's relaxation, Mrs. Fawley, and come along with us? 'Twould do you good."
"I should like to go," said she. "I've never seen the boat-racing, and I hear it is good fun."
"Come along!"
"How I WISH I could!" She looked longingly down the street. "Wait a minute, then. I'll just run up and see how he is now. Father is with him, I believe; so I can most likely come."
They waited, and she entered. Downstairs the inmates were absent as before, having, in fact, gone in a body to the river where the procession of boats was to pass. When she reached the bedroom she found that her father had not even now come.
"Why couldn't he have been here!" she said impatiently. "He wants to see the boats himself--that's what it is!"
However, on looking round to the bed she brightened, for she saw that Jude was apparently sleeping, though he was not in the usual half-elevated posture necessitated by his cough. He had slipped down, and lay flat. A second glance caused her to start, and she went to the bed. His face was quite white, and gradually becoming rigid. She touched his fingers; they were cold, though his body was still warm. She listened at his chest. All was still within. The bumping of near thirty years had ceased.
After her first appalled sense of what had happened the faint notes of a military or other brass band from the river reached her ears; and in a provoked tone she exclaimed, "To think he should die just now! Why did he die just now!" Then meditating another moment or two she went to the door, softly closed it as before, and again descended the stairs.
"Here she is!" said one of the workmen. "We wondered if you were coming after all. Come along; we must be quick to get a good place.... Well, how is he? Sleeping well still? Of course, we don't want to drag 'ee away if--"
"Oh yes--sleeping quite sound. He won't wake yet," she said hurriedly.
They went with the crowd down Cardinal Street, where they presently reached the bridge, and the gay barges burst upon their view. Thence they passed by a narrow slit down to the riverside path-- now dusty, hot, and thronged. Almost as soon as they had arrived the grand procession of boats began; the oars smacking with a loud kiss on the face of the stream, as they were lowered from the perpendicular.
"Oh, I say--how jolly! I'm glad I've come," said Arabella. "And--it can't hurt my husband--my being away."
On the opposite side of the river, on the crowded barges, were gorgeous nosegays of feminine beauty, fashionably arrayed in green, pink, blue, and white. The blue flag of the boat club denoted the centre of interest, beneath which a band in red uniform gave out the notes she had already heard in the death-chamber. Collegians of all sorts, in canoes with ladies, watching keenly for "our" boat, darted up and down. While she regarded the lively scene somebody touched Arabella in the ribs, and looking round she saw Vilbert.
"That philtre is operating, you know!" he said with a leer. "Shame on 'ee to wreck a heart so!"
"I shan't talk of love to-day."
"Why not? It is a general holiday."
She did not reply. Vilbert's arm stole round her waist, which act could be performed unobserved in the crowd. An arch expression overspread Arabella's face at the feel of the arm, but she kept her eyes on the river as if she did not know of the embrace.
The crowd surged, pushing Arabella and her friends sometimes nearly into the river, and she would have laughed heartily at the horse-play that succeeded, if the imprint on her mind's eye of a pale, statuesque countenance she had lately gazed upon had not sobered her a little.
The fun on the water reached the acme of excitement; there were immersions, there were shouts: the race was lost and won, the pink and blue and yellow ladies retired from the barges, and the people who had watched began to move.
"Well--it's been awfully good," cried Arabella. "But I think I must get back to my poor man. Father is there, so far as I know; but I had better get back."
"What's your hurry?"
"Well, I must go.... Dear, dear, this is awkward!"
At the narrow gangway where the people ascended from the riverside path to the bridge the crowd was literally jammed into one hot mass-- Arabella and Vilbert with the rest; and here they remained motionless, Arabella exclaiming, "Dear, dear!" more and more impatiently; for it had just occurred to her mind that if Jude were discovered to have died alone an inquest might be deemed necessary.
"What a fidget you are, my love," said the physician, who, being pressed close against her by the throng, had no need of personal effort for contact. "Just as well have patience: there's no getting away yet!"
It was nearly ten minutes before the wedged multitude moved sufficiently to let them pass through. As soon as she got up into the street Arabella hastened on, forbidding the physician to accompany her further that day. She did not go straight to her house; but to the abode of a woman who performed the last necessary offices for the poorer dead; where she knocked.
"My husband has just gone, poor soul," she said. "Can you come and lay him out?"
Arabella waited a few minutes; and the two women went along, elbowing their way through the stream of fashionable people pouring out of Cardinal meadow, and being nearly knocked down by the carriages.
"I must call at the sexton's about the bell, too," said Arabella. "It is just round here, isn't it? I'll meet you at my door."
By ten o'clock that night Jude was lying on the bedstead at his lodging covered with a sheet, and straight as an arrow. Through the partly opened window the joyous throb of a waltz entered from the ball-room at Cardinal.
Two days later, when the sky was equally cloudless, and the air equally still, two persons stood beside Jude's open coffin in the same little bedroom. On one side was Arabella, on the other the Widow Edlin. They were both looking at Jude's face, the worn old eyelids of Mrs. Edlin being red.
"How beautiful he is!" said she.
"Yes. He's a 'andsome corpse," said Arabella.
The window was still open to ventilate the room, and it being about noontide the clear air was motionless and quiet without. From a distance came voices; and an apparent noise of persons stamping.
"What's that?" murmured the old woman.
"Oh, that's the doctors in the theatre, conferring honorary degrees on the Duke of Hamptonshire and a lot more illustrious gents of that sort. It's Remembrance Week, you know. The cheers come from the young men."
"Aye; young and strong-lunged! Not like our poor boy here."
An occasional word, as from some one making a speech, floated from the open windows of the theatre across to this quiet corner, at which there seemed to be a smile of some sort upon the marble features of Jude; while the old, superseded, Delphin editions of Virgil and Horace, and the dog-eared Greek Testament on the neighbouring shelf, and the few other volumes of the sort that he had not parted with, roughened with stone-dust where he had been in the habit of catching them up for a few minutes between his labours, seemed to pale to a sickly cast at the sounds. The bells struck out joyously; and their reverberations travelled round the bed-room.
Arabella's eyes removed from Jude to Mrs. Edlin. "D'ye think she will come?" she asked.
"I could not say. She swore not to see him again."
"How is she looking?"
"Tired and miserable, poor heart. Years and years older than when you saw her last. Quite a staid, worn woman now. 'Tis the man--she can't stomach un, even now!"
"If Jude had been alive to see her, he would hardly have cared for her any more, perhaps."
"That's what we don't know.... Didn't he ever ask you to send for her, since he came to see her in that strange way?"
"No. Quite the contrary. I offered to send, and he said I was not to let her know how ill he was."
"Did he forgive her?"
"Not as I know."
"Well--poor little thing, 'tis to be believed she's found forgiveness somewhere! She said she had found peace!
"She may swear that on her knees to the holy cross upon her necklace till she's hoarse, but it won't be true!" said Arabella. "She's never found peace since she left his arms, and never will again till she's as he is now!"
为这些人物生平记事的作者，临到这最后若干页，敢请读者留心在绿阴匝地的夏日重临之际，裘德居室内外的种种景象。
他的脸瘦得连老朋友都认不出来了。那天下午，阿拉贝拉对镜梳理鬈发。她玩这一手的程序是，先点上一根蜡烛，再拿一根伞骨子往火苗上烧热，然后用它在散垂的头发上一绺一绺烫。卷完头发又练咋酒窝。等她穿戴齐了，回头望了望裘德，看样子他是睡着了，不过他身子是半躺半坐的，因为他的病不容他平躺下来。
阿拉贝拉戴着帽子，也戴着手套，整装待发，不过她还是坐下来等着，似乎巴望着有谁来接她的护士班。
屋里听得到外面的喧阗，表明城里正过节，不过不管节日盛况如何，反正屋里一点看不见。钟响起来了，声音从敞开的窗户进来，围着裘德的脑袋嗡嗡响。她一听钟声就坐立不安，后来自言自语的：“爸爸还没来，什么道理呀！”
她又看了看裘德，冷冷地核计着他那奄奄一息的生命，她这几个月已经三番五次这样做过。她朝裘德那只挂在那儿当钟用的表望了一眼，焦急地站起来。裘德还睡呢，于是她主意一定，溜出屋子，把门关好，没弄出响声。整个房子人都走空了。把阿拉贝拉吸引到外边去的那股力量，显然早把屋里其他人勾走了。
那一天日暖风和，万里无云，叫人们感到飘飘然。她关好前门，就两步并一步，三弯两拐，到了大成街。刚到圆形会堂附近，就听见风琴演奏声，原来是正为等会儿举行的音乐会排练呢。她从老栅栏门学院的拱道进去，看见好多人正在四方院里搭篷子，舞会当晚就在那地方的大厅举行。从四乡赶来过节凑热闹的人正在草地上野餐。阿拉贝拉顺石子路，从老酸果树底下往前走。但是她觉得那地方索然寡味，遂又转回街上，看到一辆辆马车赶过来参加音乐会。众多的大学学监和他们的夫人、带着花里胡哨的女伴的大学生，推推搡搡，跻跻跄跄。会堂的门都关上了，音乐会也开始了。她接着朝前走，没停。
音乐会的演奏气势宏阔有力，它的音浪浩浩荡荡冲出敞开的窗户上摆动着的黄幔，越过一座座房顶，流入小巷中静止的空气，甚至远播到裘德躺着的屋子里。正是在这个时刻，他咳嗽起来，从睡梦中咳醒了。
他眼睛还闹着，一到能开口说话，就嘟嘟囔囔：“来点水哟，劳驾。”
屋里空空的，没人回答他的恳求。跟着他又咳起来，咳得七死八活——说话比刚才气息还微弱：“水——来点水——苏——阿拉贝拉！”
屋里依然没有动静。他随又上气不接下气地说：“嗓子——水——苏——亲亲——一点水——劳驾——哦——劳驾！”
没人递水。风琴声继续传到屋里，轻得像蜜蜂嗡嗡。
就在他这样靠着咳着、脸色大变的当口，从河那边传来喊叫声、欢呼声。
“啊——对啦！寄思日赛船哪！”他嘟嘟囔囔的。“我还在这儿，苏成了落汤花啦！”
欢呼声又起来了，淹没了风琴声。裘德的脸色变得更厉害了，他慢慢地小声说，烧于的嘴唇动都没怎么动：
“愿我生的那日和说怀了男胎的那夜都灭没。”
（“加油！”）
“愿那日变为黑暗，愿上帝不从上面寻找它，愿亮光不照于其上。愿那夜被幽暗夺取，不在年中的日子同乐。”
（“加油！”）
“我为何不出母胎而死，为何不出母腹就绝气？……不然我就早已安静躺卧。我早已安睡，早已安息！”
（“加油！”）
“那儿被囚的人同得安逸，不听见督工的声音。……大小都在那里，奴仆脱离主人的辖制。受患难的人，为何有光赐给他呢？心中愁苦的人，为何有生命赐给他呢？”
也就是同一时间，阿拉贝拉正一路往前奔，寻奇问胜，她抄了个近路，上了条窄街，再从一个偏僻的角落穿过去，就进入红衣主教学院的四方院。那儿也一样杂沓喧嚣，为舞会准备的花卉和其他彩饰在阳光下鲜艳夺目。一个从前跟裘德一起干过活的木匠冲她点点头。从门口到大厅楼梯搭起一道走廊，上面缀满红的和黄的两样亮丽的旗帜。货车一辆辆运来了成箱的盛开的鲜花，工人正把它们四处摆放。宽大的楼梯已铺上红地毯。她冲这个那个工人点头，因为和他们是熟人关系，胆子壮了，就上楼进了大厅，只见工人正忙着为舞会铺新地板，安装各种彩饰。近边大教堂这时正好响起钟声，原来是宣告五点钟礼拜开始了。
“要是哪个小伙子搂着我跳一转，我才不在乎呢，”她跟工人中一个说。“哎呀，我可得回家啦——家里头还好多事呢。我可没跳舞的命！”
她一到家，就在门口碰上司大格和一两个跟裘德一块儿干过石活的伙伴。“我们正想到河边瞧碰船去哪。”司太格说。“想到顺路过来问问你丈夫这会儿怎么样啦。”
“他这会儿睡得挺香，谢谢大家。”阿拉贝拉说。
“那就好。呢，这么着，福来太太，你还能给自个儿放半个钟头假，跟咱们一块儿去轻松轻松，好不好？”
“我想是想去。”她说。“我压根儿没看过赛船呢。我听说怪好玩的。”
“那就走吧！”
“我但愿看得成啊。”她带着非常羡慕的样子直朝街上看。“那就请各位先等等。我跑上去瞧瞧他这会儿怎么样。爸爸跟他在一块儿哪，我看是这样；那我就八成能跟你们一块儿走啦。”
他们就在外边等着，她进去了。楼下住户原已走空，实际上搭伙儿到河边船队要经过的地方去了。她进了卧室一看，她父亲根本没照面。
“怎么搞的，他没来嘛！”她焦躁地说。“他自个儿想看赛船就是了——岂有此理！”
可是她转过来，朝床上一瞧，就展眼舒眉了，因为她看得明白，裘德还在睡乡呢，可是睡的姿势有点异样，他平常因为老要咳嗽，只好半躺半坐，这会儿却滑下来，躺平了。她又看了一眼，不禁慌了神，就走到床边。只见他脸色煞白，脸上线条渐渐变僵了；又摸了摸他的手指头；凉了，不过身上还有点热；再听了听他胸口，里头没一点动静。近乎三十年的搏动已经停止了。
她头一阵吓得三魂出壳，接着就听到河那边传过来的军乐队或铜管乐队演奏的不大清楚的乐声。她满肚子火，大叫起来，“早不死，晚不死，干吗偏挑这会儿死，这不太巧了吗？”她心里仔细掂量了一会儿，然后走到门口，跟先前一样轻轻关上门，又到楼下去了。
“她来啦！”工人中一个说。“我们还嘀咕你来还是不来呢。走吧，咱们得快点走，好去占个好位置……呃，他怎么样？还睡觉吗？照道理我们可不想把你拉走，要是——”
“哦，是呀——他睡得才沉呢。他才不会醒呢。”她抢着说。
他们混到大群人中间，一起顺着红衣主教街走，从那儿可以一直走上大桥，五光十色的彩船突然尽收眼底。他们过了桥，穿过一条窄而长的通道，往下走到临河小道上——那儿已经是尘土飞扬，热烘烘的人满为患。他们差不多刚到，盛大的船队就开始动起来，原先直悬着的船浆放下来了，一接触到水面，啪啦啦的就像大声接吻。
“哦，我说——可真有味儿呀！我算没白来啊！”阿拉贝拉说。“再说，我这么来一趟，也不会让我爷们伤筋动骨的。”
河对面，彩船拥在一块儿，上面尽是些服饰华丽、如花似玉的美人儿，绿的。粉的、黄的、白的，色彩缤纷，打扮得好不入时。赛船俱乐部的蓝旗子成了兴趣的集中点，旗子下边是一色红制服的乐队，演奏的曲子，她刚才在死人屋里已经听到过。形形色色的大学生带着小妞儿们，坐在划子上，紧盯着“咱们的”船只，划子在水面一上一下地穿行着。阿拉贝拉对这热闹场面正看得入神的时候，冷不防让人在她肋旁骨上戳了一下；她回头一看，原来是韦伯大夫。
“春药发作啦，你知道吗！”他说，淫邪地挤咕眼。“你真是害人不浅，亏你还不害臊。”
“我今儿可不跟谁热乎。”
“你这是怎么啦？大伙儿今儿个都是过节找乐子嘛。”
她没答理。韦伯偷偷搂着她的腰，因为人挤得密密的，他这个动作不愁人看见。阿拉贝拉一觉着他膀子上来，一脸心痒难挠的表情，不过她还是盯着河上看，装出来不知道有人搂着她。
人群潮涌般往前挤，你推我操，把阿拉贝拉和她的朋友们快推到河里了；接着是一阵粗鄙不堪的哄闹；要不是她先前死死盯过的那张大理石雕像般惨白面容在她心里留下深深印象，因而她头脑还没糊涂到底，这会儿她准会因为恶作剧而毫无顾忌地开怀大笑呢。
河上的比赛笑料百出，令人捧腹，一时达到了兴奋的高潮，有些船翻了，有些船不住地呐喊。输的输，赢的赢，总算见了分晓，于是彩船上那些粉的、蓝的、黄的太太小姐舍舟登岸，看热闹的人也开始移动。
“呃——真他奶奶的够劲儿啊。”阿拉贝拉大声说。“不过我得回去照顾我的可怜的爷们啦。爸爸在那儿，我知道；可我还是回去好。”
“你急着什么呀？”
“呃，我得走……哎，哎，事情不好办哪！”
那道开在河边小道和大桥之间的栈桥本是必经之路，这时熙熙攘攘的人群把它挤得水泄不通，他们成了一块冒热气的大肉团——阿拉贝拉挤在里头，想动也动不了，她越来越急，直叫，“他妈的，他妈的。”因为她忽地想到万一有人发现裘德死时候旁边没人，那一定会闹得办验尸手续。
“你急得猫抓心似的，我的好人儿。”大夫说，人把他挤得不用费劲就紧贴着她。“你还是耐着点吧，这会儿没法挤出去。”
前后大概十分钟，挤在一起的人群总算松动了，让了个缝，够他们钻出去。她一到街上，立刻快马加鞭，不许大夫这一天再纠缠她。她没直接回家，而是直奔一个女人家里，那个女人专为死了的穷苦人办必不可少的正式手续。
“我丈夫刚走啦，可怜的好人哪。”她说。“你还能来给他装裹吗？”
阿拉贝拉等了几分钟，随后两个女人就一路走去，恰好从红衣主教学院大草场那边，打扮入时的人流蜂拥而来，她们拼命从中间挤过去，险些让马车撞倒。
“我先得上教堂找管事的，让他撞钟。”阿拉贝拉说。“就在这附近吧？咱们在家门口见就是了。”
那天晚上十点钟光景，裘德躺在自家床上，盖着裹尸布，直挺挺像根箭。红衣主教学院舞会上欢乐的华尔兹舞曲从半开的窗户传进来。
两天后，天空一样万里无云，空气一样凝然不动，还是那间小屋子，没上盖的裘德的棺材旁边站着两个人。一边是阿拉贝拉，另一边是艾林寡妇。她们俩看着裘德的脸，艾林太太的皱缩的眼皮红红的。
“他真好看啊！”她说。
“是啊，他死了还那么帅。”阿拉贝拉说。
窗户依旧开着，好让屋里空气流通。中午时分，清澄的空气静止、安谧，只听得见远处有人说话，还有明白的杂沓的跺脚声。
“怎么回事？”老太婆嘟囔着。
“哦，圆形会堂里头，那些博士，给汉普顿郡公爵跟什么贵人授名誉学位哪。这礼拜是寄思周，你知道吧。那些小伙子高兴得欢呼哪。”
“唉，人年轻，肺结实！可不像咱们这儿可怜的孩子啊。”
看来圆形会堂里什么人正发表演说，间或有个把句子飘出来，老远地传到这个静静的角落，裘德的大理石般的面容似乎因此而微露笑容；近旁书架上，过时的老德尔芬版的维吉尔和贺拉斯的著作和书角卷起来的希腊文《新约》，以及很少几部他一直没肯出手的旧书——他工间休息，习惯于拿起浏览几分钟，书皮已让石粉弄糙，好像也听到了同样声音，一时都显得愁容惨淡，恹恹如伤。钟声欢悦，在这间卧室里回环不已。
阿拉贝拉的目光从裘德移向艾林夫人。“你看她会不会来？”她问。
“我也说不上来。她发过誓不再见他。”
“她这会儿怎么样？”
“可怜的心，那样儿又惨又邋遢啊。跟你上回见她一比，一下子老了多少年啦。成了事事没心的憔悴的女人啦。这都怪那个男的——她实在吃不消他，到这会儿还是一样哪！”
“要是裘德还活着见到她，他大概也不会再往心里去啦。”
“这就难说啦……打那个奇怪晚上他见她之后，他叫你给她寄过信没有？”
“没有。正好反过来。我倒是要寄个信，他说别告诉她他病得怎么样。”
“他已经宽恕她啦？”
“我知道没有。”
“呃——可怜的小东西哟，咱们还是相信她总会找到宽恕吧！她说她心里宁静啦！”
“她可以跪下来，对着她项圈上神圣的十字架起誓，说她心宁静了，说得嗓子哑了也行，可是那根本不是实话！”阿拉贝拉说。“打她离开他怀抱那天起，她心里决计没宁静过。不到她跟他这会儿一样，她就永远休想心里宁静。”