"I don't want any cant!" exclaimed Jude.
"It isn't cant," said Arabella. "I feel exactly the same as she!"
He closed that issue by remarking abruptly: "Well--now I know all I
wanted to know. Many thanks for your information. I am not going
back to my lodgings just yet." And he left her straightway.
In his misery and depression Jude walked to well-nigh every spot
in the city that he had visited with Sue; thence he did not know
whither, and then thought of going home to his usual evening meal.
But having all the vices of his virtues, and some to spare, he turned
into a public house, for the first time during many months. Among
the possible consequences of her marriage Sue had not dwelt on this.
Arabella, meanwhile, had gone back. The evening passed, and Jude
did not return. At half-past nine Arabella herself went out, first
proceeding to an outlying district near the river where her father
lived, and had opened a small and precarious pork-shop lately.
"Well," she said to him, "for all your rowing me that night, I've
called in, for I have something to tell you. I think I shall get
married and settled again. Only you must help me: and you can do
no less, after what I've stood 'ee."
"I'll do anything to get thee off my hands!"
"Very well. I am now going to look for my young man. He's on the
loose I'm afraid, and I must get him home. All I want you to do
to-night is not to fasten the door, in case I should want to sleep
here, and should be late."
"I thought you'd soon get tired of giving yourself airs and keeping
away!"
"Well--don't do the door. That's all I say."
She then sallied out again, and first hastening back to Jude's to
make sure that he had not returned, began her search for him. A
shrewd guess as to his probable course took her straight to the
tavern which Jude had formerly frequented, and where she had been
barmaid for a brief term. She had no sooner opened the door of the
"Private Bar" than her eyes fell upon him--sitting in the shade at
the back of the compartment, with his eyes fixed on the floor in a
blank stare. He was drinking nothing stronger than ale just then.
He did not observe her, and she entered and sat beside him.
Jude looked up, and said without surprise: "You've come to have
something, Arabella? ... I'm trying to forget her: that's all! But
I can't; and I am going home." She saw that he was a little way on
in liquor, but only a little as yet.