Jude the Obscure (Oxford World's Classics)

parting was in good friendship, and yet Jude’s last look into her eyes
was tinged with inquiry, for he felt that he did not even now quite
know her mind.
At Melchester


---

III.–vii.
T
 from Sue a day or two after passed across Jude like a
withering blast.
Before reading the letter he was led to suspect that its contents
were of a somewhat serious kind by catching sight of the signature––
which was in her full name, never used in her correspondence with
him since her 
first note:
‘M
  J: I have something to tell you which perhaps you will
not be surprised to hear, though certainly it may strike you as being
accelerated, as the railway companies say of their trains. Mr. Phillotson
and I are to be married quite soon––in three or four weeks. We had
intended, as you know, to wait till I had gone through my course of
training, and obtained my certi
ficate, so as to assist him if necessary, in the
teaching. But he generously says he does not see any object in waiting, now
I am not at the Training School. It is so good of him, because the awk-
wardness of my situation has really come about by my fault in getting
expelled.
‘Wish me joy: remember I say you are to, and you mustn’t refuse!––
Your a
ffectionate cousin
‘S
 F M B.’
Jude staggered under the news; could eat no breakfast; and kept
on drinking tea because his mouth was so dry. Then presently he
went back to his work and laughed the usual bitter laugh of a man so
confronted. Everything seemed turning to satire. And yet, what
could the poor girl do, he asked himself: and felt worse than shed-
ding tears.
‘O Susanna Florence Mary!’ he said as he worked. ‘You don’t
know what marriage means!’
Could it be possible that his announcement of his own marriage
had pricked her on to this, just as his visit to her when in liquor may
have pricked her on to her engagement? To be sure, there seemed to
exist these other and su
fficient reasons, practical and social, for her
decision; but Sue was not a very practical or calculating person; and
he was compelled to think that a pique at having his secret sprung
upon her had moved her to give way to Phillotson’s probable repre-
sentations, that the best course to prove how unfounded were the

---

suspicions of the school authorities would be to marry him o
ff-hand,
as in ful
filment of an ordinary engagement. Sue had, in fact, been
placed in an awkward corner. Poor Sue!
He determined to play the Spartan; to make the best of it, and
support her; but he could not write the requested good wishes for a
day or two; meanwhile there came another note from his impatient
little dear:
‘Jude, will you give me away? I have nobody else who could do it so
conveniently as you, being the only married relation I have here on the
spot, even if my father were friendly enough* to be willing, which he isn’t. I
hope you won’t think it a trouble? I have been looking at the marriage
service in the Prayer-book, and it seems to me very humiliating that a
giver-away should be required at all. According to the ceremony as there
printed, my bridegroom chooses me of his own will and pleasure; but I
don’t choose him. Somebody gives me to him, like a she-ass or she-goat, or
any other domestic animal. Bless your exalted views of woman, O
Churchman! But I forget: I am no longer privileged to tease you.––Ever,
‘S
 F M B.’
Jude screwed himself up to heroic key; and replied:
‘M
  S: Of course I wish you joy! And also of course I will give
you away. What I suggest is that, as you have no house of your own, you do
not marry from your school friend’s, but from mine. It would be more
proper, I think, since I am as you say, the person nearest related to you in
this part of the world.
‘I don’t see why you sign your letter in such a new and terribly formal
way? Surely you care a bit about me still!
Ever your a
ffectionate
J
.’
What had jarred on him even more than the signature was a little
sting he had been silent on––the phrase ‘married relation’––What an
idiot it made him seem as her lover! If Sue had written that in satire,
he could hardly forgive her; if in su
ffering––ah, that was another
thing!
His o
ffer of his lodging must have commended itself to Phillotson
at any rate, for the schoolmaster sent him a line of warm thanks,
accepting the convenience. Sue also thanked him. Jude immediately
moved into more commodious quarters, as much to escape the espi-
onage of the suspicious landlady who had been one cause of Sue’s
unpleasant experience as for the sake of room.