Jude the Obscure (Oxford World's Classics)

At Aldbrickham and Elsewhere
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‘He’s charmed by her as if she were some fairy!’ continued
Arabella. ‘See how he looks round at her, and lets his eyes rest on
her. I am inclined to think that she don’t care for him quite so
much as he does for her. She’s not a particular warm-hearted
creature to my thinking, though she cares for him pretty middling
much––as much as she’s able to; and he could make her heart
ache a bit if he liked to try––which he’s too simple to do.
There––now they are going across to the carthorse sheds. Come
along.’
‘I don’t want to see the cart-horses. It is no business of ours to
follow these two. If we have come to see the show let us see it in our
own way, as they do in theirs.’
‘Well––suppose we agree to meet somewhere in an hour’s time––
say at that refreshment tent over there, and go about independent?
Then you can look at what you choose to, and so can I.’
Cartlett was not loth to agree to this, and they parted––he pro-
ceeding to the shed where malting processes were being exhibited,
and Arabella in the direction taken by Jude and Sue. Before, how-
ever, she had regained their wake a laughing face met her own, and
she was confronted by Anny, the friend of her girlhood.
Anny had burst out in hearty laughter at the mere fact of the
chance rencounter. ‘I am still living down there,’ she said, as soon as
she was composed. ‘I am soon going to be married, but my intended
couldn’t come up here to-day. But there’s lots of us come by
excursion, though I’ve lost the rest of ’em for the present.’
‘Have you met Jude and his young woman, or wife, or whatever
she is? I saw ’em by now.’
‘No. Not a glimpse of un for years.’
‘Well, they are close by here somewhere. Yes––there they are––by
that grey horse!’
‘O, that’s his present young woman––wife did you say? Has he
married again?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘She’s pretty, isn’t she!’
‘Yes––nothing to complain of; or jump at. Not much to depend
on, though; a slim, 
fidgety little thing like that.’
‘He’s a nice-looking chap, too. You ought to ha’ stuck to un,
Arabella.’
‘I don’t know but I ought,’ murmured she.
Jude the Obscure
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Anny laughed. ‘That’s you, Arabella. Always wanting another
man than your own.’
‘Well, and what woman don’t I should like to know? As for that
body with him––she don’t know what love is––at least what I call
love. I can see in her face she don’t.’
‘And perhaps, Abby dear, you don’t know what she calls love.’
‘I’m sure I don’t wish to! . . . Ah––they are making for the Art
Department. I should like to see some pictures myself. Suppose we
go that way?––Why, if all Wessex isn’t here, I verily believe! There’s
Dr. Vilbert. Haven’t seen him for years, and he’s not looking a day
older than when I used to know him. How do you do, Physician? I
was just saying that you don’t look a day older than when you knew
me as a girl.’
‘Simply the result of taking my own pills regular, ma’am. Only
two and threepence a box––warranted e
fficacious by the Govern-
ment stamp. Now let me advise you to purchase the same immunity
from the ravages of Time by following my example? Only two-and-
three.’
The physician had produced a box from his waistcoat pocket, and
Arabella was induced to make the purchase.
‘At the same time,’ continued he, when the pills were paid for,
‘you have the advantage of me, Mrs.––Surely not Mrs. Fawley, once
Miss Donn, of the vicinity of Marygreen?’
‘Yes. But Mrs. Cartlett now.’
‘Ah––you lost him, then? Promising young fellow! A pupil of
mine, you know. I taught him the dead languages. And, believe me,
he soon knew nearly as much as I.’
‘I lost him; but not as you think,’ said Arabella drily. ‘The lawyers
untied us. There he is, look, alive and lusty; along with that young
woman, entering the Art exhibition.’
‘Ah––dear me! Fond of her, apparently.’
‘They say they are cousins.’
‘Cousinship is a great convenience to their feelings, I should say?’
‘Yes. So her husband thought, no doubt, when he divorced her. . . .
Shall we look at the pictures, too?’
The trio followed across the green and entered. Jude and Sue,
with the child, unaware of the interest they were exciting, had gone
up to a model at one end of the building, which they regarded with
considerable attention for a long while before they went on. Arabella