"You go by the six-thirty train, don"t you? It is now a quarter to six."
"You... You don"t seem very sorry I am going, Richard!"
"Oh no-perhaps not."
"I like you much for how you have behaved. It is a curious thing that directly I have begun to regard you as not my husband, but as my old teacher, I like you. I won"t be so affected as to say I love you, because you know I don"t, except as a friend. But you do seem that to me!"
Sue was for a few moments a little tearful at these reflections, and then the station omnibus came round to take her up. Phillotson saw her things put on the top, handed her in, and was obliged to make an appearance of kissing her as he wished her good-bye, which she quite understood and imitated. From the cheerful manner in which they parted the omnibus-man had no other idea than that she was going for a short visit.
When Phillotson got back into the house he went upstairs and opened the window in the direction the omnibus had taken. Soon the noise of its wheels died away. He came down then, his face compressed like that of one bearing pain; he put on his hat and went out, following by the same route for nearly a mile. Suddenly turning round he came home.
He had no sooner entered than the voice of his friend Gillingham greeted him from the front room.
"I could make n.o.body hear; so finding your door open I walked in, and made myself comfortable. I said I would call, you remember."
"Yes. I am much obliged to you, Gillingham, particularly for coming to-night."
"How is Mrs.-"
"She is quite well. She is gone-just gone. That"s her tea-cup, that she drank out of only an hour ago. And that"s the plate she-" Phillotson"s throat got choked up, and he could not go on. He turned and pushed the tea-things aside.
"Have you had any tea, by the by?" he asked presently in a renewed voice.
"No-yes-never mind," said Gillingham, preoccupied. "Gone, you say she is?"
"Yes... I would have died for her; but I wouldn"t be cruel to her in the name of the law. She is, as I understand, gone to join her lover. What they are going to do I cannot say. Whatever it may be she has my full consent to."
There was a stability, a ballast, in Phillotson"s p.r.o.nouncement which restrained his friend"s comment. "Shall I-leave you?" he asked.
"No, no. It is a mercy to me that you have come. I have some articles to arrange and clear away. Would you help me?"
Gillingham a.s.sented; and having gone to the upper rooms the schoolmaster opened drawers, and began taking out all Sue"s things that she had left behind, and laying them in a large box. "She wouldn"t take all I wanted her to," he continued. "But when I made up my mind to her going to live in her own way I did make up my mind."
"Some men would have stopped at an agreement to separate."
"I"ve gone into all that, and don"t wish to argue it. I was, and am, the most old-fashioned man in the world on the question of marriage-in fact I had never thought critically about its ethics at all. But certain facts stared me in the face, and I couldn"t go against them."
They went on with the packing silently. When it was done Phillotson closed the box and turned the key.
"There," he said. "To adorn her in somebody"s eyes; never again in mine!"
V
Four-and-twenty hours before this time Sue had written the following note to Jude:
It is as I told you; and I am leaving to-morrow evening. Richard and I thought it could be done with less obtrusiveness after dark. I feel rather frightened, and therefore ask you to be sure you are on the Melchester platform to meet me. I arrive at a little to seven. I know you will, of course, dear Jude; but I feel so timid that I can"t help begging you to be punctual. He has been so very kind to me through it all!
Now to our meeting!
S.
As she was carried by the omnibus farther and farther down from the mountain town-the single pa.s.senger that evening-she regarded the receding road with a sad face. But no hesitation was apparent therein.
The up-train by which she was departing stopped by signal only. To Sue it seemed strange that such a powerful organization as a railway train should be brought to a stand-still on purpose for her-a fugitive from her lawful home.
The twenty minutes" journey drew towards its close, and Sue began gathering her things together to alight. At the moment that the train came to a stand-still by the Melchester platform a hand was laid on the door and she beheld Jude. He entered the compartment promptly. He had a black bag in his hand, and was dressed in the dark suit he wore on Sundays and in the evening after work. Altogether he looked a very handsome young fellow, his ardent affection for her burning in his eyes.
"Oh Jude!" She clasped his hand with both hers, and her tense state caused her to simmer over in a little succession of dry sobs. "I-I am so glad! I get out here?"
"No. I get in, dear one! I"ve packed. Besides this bag I"ve only a big box which is labelled."
"But don"t I get out? Aren"t we going to stay here?"
"We couldn"t possibly, don"t you see. We are known here-I, at any rate, am well known. I"ve booked for Aldbrickham; and here"s your ticket for the same place, as you have only one to here."
"I thought we should have stayed here," she repeated.
"It wouldn"t have done at all."
"Ah! Perhaps not."
"There wasn"t time for me to write and say the place I had decided on. Aldbrickham is a much bigger town-sixty or seventy thousand inhabitants-and n.o.body knows anything about us there."
"And you have given up your cathedral work here?"
"Yes. It was rather sudden-your message coming unexpectedly. Strictly, I might have been made to finish out the week. But I pleaded urgency and I was let off. I would have deserted any day at your command, dear Sue. I have deserted more than that for you!"
"I fear I am doing you a lot of harm. Ruining your prospects of the Church; ruining your progress in your trade; everything!"
"The Church is no more to me. Let it lie! I am not to be one of
The soldier-saints who, row on row, Burn upward each to his point of bliss,
if any such there be! My point of bliss is not upward, but here."
"Oh I seem so bad-upsetting men"s courses like this!" said she, taking up in her voice the emotion that had begun in his. But she recovered her equanimity by the time they had travelled a dozen miles.
"He has been so good in letting me go," she resumed. "And here"s a note I found on my dressing-table, addressed to you."
"Yes. He"s not an unworthy fellow," said Jude, glancing at the note. "And I am ashamed of myself for hating him because he married you."