Jude the Obsure

"Why should you care so much for Christminster?" she said pensively.

"Christminster cares nothing for you, poor dear!"

"Well, I do, I can't help it. I love the place--although I know

how it hates all men like me--the so-called self-taught--how it

scorns our laboured acquisitions, when it should be the first

to respect them; how it sneers at our false quantities and

mispronunciations, when it should say, I see you want help, my poor

friend! ... Nevertheless, it is the centre of the universe to me,

because of my early dream: and nothing can alter it. Perhaps it will

soon wake up, and be generous. I pray so! ... I should like to go

back to live there--perhaps to die there! In two or three weeks I

might, I think. It will then be June, and I should like to be there

by a particular day."

His hope that he was recovering proved so far well grounded that

in three weeks they had arrived in the city of many memories; were

actually treading its pavements, receiving the reflection of the

sunshine from its wasting walls.