Jude the Obsure

"He won't do that, my dear little girl. You are the best teacher

ever I had!"

He looked so gently at her that she was moved, and regretted that she

had upbraided him. When she was better she went home.

Jude in the meantime had been waiting impatiently for Friday. On

both Wednesday and Thursday he had been so much under the influence

of his desire to see her that he walked after dark some distance

along the road in the direction of the village, and, on returning to

his room to read, found himself quite unable to concentrate his mind

on the page. On Friday, as soon as he had got himself up as he

thought Sue would like to see him, and made a hasty tea, he set

out, notwithstanding that the evening was wet. The trees overhead

deepened the gloom of the hour, and they dripped sadly upon him,

impressing him with forebodings--illogical forebodings; for though he

knew that he loved her he also knew that he could not be more to her

than he was.

On turning the corner and entering the village the first sight that

greeted his eyes was that of two figures under one umbrella coming

out of the vicarage gate. He was too far back for them to notice

him, but he knew in a moment that they were Sue and Phillotson. The

latter was holding the umbrella over her head, and they had evidently

been paying a visit to the vicar--probably on some business connected

with the school work. And as they walked along the wet and deserted

lane Jude saw Phillotson place his arm round the girl's waist;

whereupon she gently removed it; but he replaced it; and she let it

remain, looking quickly round her with an air of misgiving. She did

not look absolutely behind her, and therefore did not see Jude, who

sank into the hedge like one struck with a blight. There he remained

hidden till they had reached Sue's cottage and she had passed in,

Phillotson going on to the school hard by.

"Oh, he's too old for her--too old!" cried Jude in all the terrible

sickness of hopeless, handicapped love.

He could not interfere. Was he not Arabella's? He was unable to

go on further, and retraced his steps towards Christminster. Every

tread of his feet seemed to say to him that he must on no account

stand in the schoolmaster's way with Sue. Phillotson was perhaps

twenty years her senior, but many a happy marriage had been made

in such conditions of age. The ironical clinch to his sorrow was

given by the thought that the intimacy between his cousin and the

schoolmaster had been brought about entirely by himself.