"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.