Jude the Obscure (Oxford World's Classics)

Jude the Obscure
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own housekeeper, purveyor, con
fidant, and friend, through possess-
ing nobody else at all in the world to act in those capacities for him.
The remainder of the journey was down-hill, and guessing him to be
going to Alfredston they o
ffered him a lift, which he accepted.
Arabella looked at him, and looked again, till at length she spoke.
‘If I don’t mistake I am talking to Mr. Phillotson?’
The wayfarer faced round and regarded her in turn. ‘Yes; my
name is Phillotson,’ he said. ‘But I don’t recognize you, ma’am.’
‘I remember you well enough when you used to be schoolmaster
out at Marygreen, and I one of your scholars. I used to walk up there
from Cresscombe every day, because we had only a mistress down at
our place, and you taught better. But you wouldn’t remember me as I
should you?––Arabella Donn.’
He shook his head. ‘No,’ he said politely, ‘I don’t recall the name.
And I should hardly recognize in your present portly self the slim
school child no doubt you were then.’
‘Well, I always had plenty of 
flesh on my bones. However I am
staying down here with some friends at present. You know, I
suppose, who I married?’
‘No.’
‘Jude Fawley––also a scholar of yours––at least a night scholar––
for some little time I think? And known to you afterwards, if I am not
mistaken.’
‘Dear me, dear me,’ said Phillotson starting out of his sti
ffness.
‘You Fawley’s wife? To be sure––he had a wife. And he––I
understood——’
‘Divorced her––as you did yours––perhaps for better reasons.’
‘Indeed?’
‘Well––he med have been right in doing it––right for both; for I
soon married again, and all went pretty straight till my husband died
lately. But you––you were decidedly wrong!’
‘No,’ said Phillotson, with sudden testiness. ‘I would rather not
talk of this, but––I am convinced I did only what was right, and just,
and moral. I have su
ffered for my act and opinions, but I hold to
them; though her loss was a loss to me in more ways than one.’
‘You lost your school and good income through her, did you not?’
‘I don’t care to talk of it. I have recently come back here––to
Marygreen, I mean.’
‘You are keeping the school there again, just as formerly?’
At Aldbrickham and Elsewhere
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The pressure of a sadness that would out unsealed him. ‘I am
there,’ he replied. ‘Just as formerly, no. Merely on su
fferance. It was
a last resource––a small thing to return to after my move upwards,
and my long indulged hopes––a returning to zero, with all its
humiliations. But it is a refuge. I like the seclusion of the place, and
the vicar having known me before my so-called eccentric conduct
towards my wife had ruined my reputation as a schoolmaster, he
accepted my services when all other schools were closed against me.
However, although I take 
fifty pounds a year here after taking above
two hundred elsewhere, I prefer it to running the risk of having my
old domestic experiences raked up against me, as I should do if I
tried to make a move.’
‘Right you are. A contented mind is a continual feast. She has
done no better.’
‘She is not doing well, you mean?’
‘I met her by accident at Kennetbridge this very day, and she is
anything but thriving. Her husband is ill, and she anxious. You made
a fool of a mistake about her, I tell ’ee again, and the harm you did
yourself by dirting your own nest serves you right, excusing the
liberty.’
‘How?’
‘She was innocent.’
‘But nonsense! They did not even defend the case!’
‘That was because they didn’t care to. She was quite innocent of
what obtained you your freedom, at the time you obtained it. I saw
her just afterwards, and proved it to myself completely by talking to
her.’
Phillotson grasped the edge of the spring-cart, and appeared to be
much stressed and worried by the information. ‘Still––she wanted to
go,’ he said.
‘Yes. But you shouldn’t have let her. That’s the only way with
these fanciful women that chaw high*––innocent or guilty. She’d have
come round in time. We all do! Custom does it! it’s all the same in the
end! However, I think she’s fond of her man still––whatever he med
be of her. You were too quick about her. I shouldn’t have let her go! I
should have kept her chained on––her spirit for kicking would have
been broke soon enough! There’s nothing like bondage and a stone-
deaf task-master for taming us women. Besides, you’ve got the laws
on your side. Moses knew. Don’t you call to mind what he says?’