Jude the Obscure (Oxford World's Classics)

partment, and the starting of the mechanical tell-tale of monies
received, which emitted a ting-ting every time a coin was put in.
The barmaid attending to this compartment was invisible to
Jude’s direct glance, though a re
flection of her back in the glass
behind her was occasionally caught by his eyes. He had only
observed this listlessly when she turned her face for a moment to the
glass to set her hair tidy. Then he was amazed to discover that the
face was Arabella’s.
If she had come on to his compartment she would have seen him.
But she did not, this being presided over by the maiden on the other
side. Abby was in a black gown, with white linen cu
ffs, and a broad
white collar, and her 
figure, more developed than formerly, was
accentuated by a bunch of da
ffodils that she wore on her left bosom.
In the compartment she served stood an electro-plated fountain of
water over a spirit-lamp, whose blue 
flame sent a steam from the top,
all this being visible to him only in the mirror behind her; which also
re
flected the faces of the men she was attending to––one of them a
handsome, dissipated young fellow, possibly an undergraduate, who
had been relating to her an experience of some humorous sort.
‘O, Mr. Cockman, now! How can you tell such a tale to me in my
innocence!’ she cried gaily. ‘Mr. Cockman, what do you use to make
your moustache curl so beautiful?’ As the young man was clean
shaven the retort provoked a laugh at his expense. ‘Come!’ said he,
‘I’ll have a Curaçoa; and a light, please.’
She served the liqueur from one of the lovely bottles, and striking
a match held it to his cigarette with ministering archness while he
whi
ffed.
‘Well, have you heard from your husband lately my dear?’ he
asked.
‘Not a sound,’ said she.
‘Where is he?’
‘I left him in Australia; and I suppose he’s there still.’
Jude’s eyes grew rounder.
Jude the Obscure


---

‘What made you part from him?’
‘Don’t you ask questions, and you won’t hear lies.’
‘Come then, give me my change, which you’ve been keeping from
me for the last quarter of an hour; and I’ll romantically vanish up the
street of this picturesque city.’
She handed the change over the counter, in taking which he
caught her 
fingers and held them. There was a slight struggle, and
titter, and he bade her goodbye and left.
Jude had looked on with the eye of a dazed philosopher. It was
extraordinary how far removed from his life Arabella now seemed to
be. He could not realize their nominal closeness. And, this being the
case, in his present frame of mind he was indi
fferent to the fact that
Arabella was his wife indeed.
The compartment that she served emptied itself of visitors, and
after a brief thought he entered it, and went forward to the counter.
Arabella did not recognize him for a moment. Then their glances
met. She started; till a humorous impudence sparkled in her eyes,
and she spoke.
‘Well, I’m blest! I thought you were underground years ago!’
‘Oh?’
‘I never heard anything of you, or I don’t know that I should have
come here. But never mind. What shall I treat you to this afternoon?
A Scotch and soda? Come, anything that the house will a
fford, for
old acquaintance’ sake!’
‘Thanks Arabella,’ said Jude without a smile. ‘But I don’t want
anything more than I’ve had.’ The fact was that her unexpected
presence there had destroyed at a stroke his momentary taste for
strong liquor as completely as if it had whisked him back to his
milk-fed infancy.
‘That’s a pity, now you could get it for nothing.’
‘How long have you been here?’
‘About six weeks. I returned from Sydney three months ago. I
always liked this business, you know.’
‘I wonder you came to this place!’
‘Well, as I say, I thought you were gone to glory, and being
in London I saw the situation in an advertisement. Nobody was
likely to know me here, even if I had minded, for I was never in
Christminster in my growing up.’
‘Why did you return from Australia?’