The Three Ages of Woman

The Three Ages of Woman
The Virgin and Child with St Anne
The Water lily Pond
Venus and Cupid
¡¡¡¡ 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!"