Jude the Obsure

Meanwhile the young woman had knocked at the office door and asked if

Mr. Jude Fawley was at work in the yard. It so happened that Jude

had gone out somewhere or other that afternoon, which information she

received with a look of disappointment, and went away immediately.

When Jude returned they told him, and described her, whereupon he

exclaimed, "Why--that's my cousin Sue!"

He looked along the street after her, but she was out of sight. He

had no longer any thought of a conscientious avoidance of her, and

resolved to call upon her that very evening. And when he reached

his lodging he found a note from her--a first note--one of those

documents which, simple and commonplace in themselves, are seen

retrospectively to have been pregnant with impassioned consequences.

The very unconsciousness of a looming drama which is shown in such

innocent first epistles from women to men, or _vice versa_, makes

them, when such a drama follows, and they are read over by the purple

or lurid light of it, all the more impressive, solemn, and in cases,

terrible.

Sue's was of the most artless and natural kind. She addressed him

as her dear cousin Jude; said she had only just learnt by the merest

accident that he was living in Christminster, and reproached him with

not letting her know. They might have had such nice times together,

she said, for she was thrown much upon herself, and had hardly any

congenial friend. But now there was every probability of her soon

going away, so that the chance of companionship would be lost perhaps

for ever.

A cold sweat overspread Jude at the news that she was going away.

That was a contingency he had never thought of, and it spurred him

to write all the more quickly to her. He would meet her that very

evening, he said, one hour from the time of writing, at the cross in

the pavement which marked the spot of the Martyrdoms.

When he had despatched the note by a boy he regretted that in his

hurry he should have suggested to her to meet him out of doors, when

he might have said he would call upon her. It was, in fact, the

country custom to meet thus, and nothing else had occurred to him.

Arabella had been met in the same way, unfortunately, and it might

not seem respectable to a dear girl like Sue. However, it could not

be helped now, and he moved towards the point a few minutes before

the hour, under the glimmer of the newly lighted lamps.

The broad street was silent, and almost deserted, although it was

not late. He saw a figure on the other side, which turned out to

be hers, and they both converged towards the crossmark at the same

moment. Before either had reached it she called out to him: "I am not going to meet you just there, for the first time in my

life! Come further on."