melancholy ruins they retraced their steps––their course lying
through the town of Alfredston.
Arabella said she would like some tea, and they entered an inn of
inferior class, and gave their order. As it was not for beer they had a
long time to wait. The maid-servant recognized Jude, and whispered
her surprise to her mistress in the background, that he, the student
‘who kept hisself up so particular,’ should have suddenly descended
so low as to keep company with Arabella. The latter guessed what
was being said, and laughed as she met the serious and tender gaze of
her lover––the low and triumphant laugh of a careless woman who
sees she is winning her game.
They sat and looked round the room, and at the picture of
Samson and Delilah* which hung on the wall, and at the circular
beer-stains on the table, and at the spittoons underfoot
filled with
sawdust. The whole aspect of the scene had that depressing e
ffect on
Jude which few places can produce like a tap-room on a Sunday
evening when the setting sun is slanting in, overnight smells linger
and no liquor is going, and the unfortunate wayfarer
finds himself
with no other haven of rest.
It began to grow dusk. They could not wait longer, really, for the
tea, they said. ‘Yet what else can we do?’ asked Jude. ‘It is a three-
mile walk for you.’
‘I suppose we can have some beer,’ said Arabella.
‘Beer, O yes. I had forgotten that. Somehow it seems odd to come
to a public-house for beer on a Sunday evening.’
‘But we didn’t.’
‘No, we didn’t.’ Jude by this time wished he was out of such an
uncongenial atmosphere; but he ordered the beer, which was
promptly brought.
Arabella tasted it. ‘Ugh!’ she said.
Jude tasted. ‘What’s the matter with it?’ he asked. ‘I don’t under-
stand beer very much now, it is true.––I like it well enough, but it is
bad to read on, and I
find coffee better. But this seems all right.’
‘Adulterated––I can’t touch it.’ She mentioned three or four
ingredients that she detected in the liquor beyond malt and hops,
much to Jude’s surprise.
‘How much you know!’ he said good-humouredly.
Nevertheless she returned to the beer and drank her share, and
they went on their way. It was now nearly dark, and as soon as they
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