Jude the Obsure

She ran up the church to the east end, and Jude did as she requested.

He did not turn his head, but took up his blanket, which she had not

seen, and went straight out. As he passed the end of the church she

heard his coughs mingling with the rain on the windows, and in a last

instinct of human affection, even now unsubdued by her fetters, she

sprang up as if to go and succour him. But she knelt down again, and

stopped her ears with her hands till all possible sound of him had

passed away.

He was by this time at the corner of the green, from which the path

ran across the fields in which he had scared rooks as a boy. He

turned and looked back, once, at the building which still contained

Sue; and then went on, knowing that his eyes would light on that

scene no more.

There are cold spots up and down Wessex in autumn and winter weather;

but the coldest of all when a north or east wind is blowing is the

crest of the down by the Brown House, where the road to Alfredston

crosses the old Ridgeway. Here the first winter sleets and snows

fall and lie, and here the spring frost lingers last unthawed. Here

in the teeth of the north-east wind and rain Jude now pursued his

way, wet through, the necessary slowness of his walk from lack of his

former strength being insufficent to maintain his heat. He came to

the milestone, and, raining as it was, spread his blanket and lay

down there to rest. Before moving on he went and felt at the back

of the stone for his own carving. It was still there; but nearly

obliterated by moss. He passed the spot where the gibbet of his

ancestor and Sue's had stood, and descended the hill.

It was dark when he reached Alfredston, where he had a cup of tea,

the deadly chill that began to creep into his bones being too much

for him to endure fasting. To get home he had to travel by a steam

tram-car, and two branches of railway, with much waiting at a

junction. He did not reach Christminster till ten o'clock.

IX

On the platform stood Arabella. She looked him up and down.

"You've been to see her?" she asked.

"I have," said Jude, literally tottering with cold and lassitude.

"Well, now you'd best march along home."

The water ran out of him as he went, and he was compelled to lean

against the wall to support himself while coughing.