第53章 At Melchester(12)

At first sight there seemed in these small documents to be absolutely nothing to muse over.They were straightforward,frank letters,signed 'Sue B -';just such ones as would be written during short absences,with no other thought than their speedy destruction,and chiefly concerning books in reading and other experiences of a training school,forgotten doubtless by the writer with the passing of the day of their inditing.In one of them -quite a recent note -the young woman said that she had received his considerate letter,and that it was honourable and generous of him to say he would not come to see her oftener than she desired (the school being such an awkward place for callers,and because of her strong wish that her engagement to him should not be known,which it would infallibly be if he visited her often).Over these phrases the school-master pored.

What precise shade of satisfaction was to be gathered from a woman's gratitude that the man who loved her had not been often to see her?The problem occupied him,distracted him.

He opened another drawer,and found therein an envelope,from which he drew a photograph of Sue as a child,long before he had known her,standing under trellis-work with a little basket in her hand.There was another of her as a young woman,her dark eyes and hair making a very distinct and attractive picture of her,which just disclosed,too,the thoughtfulness that lay behind her lighter moods.It was a duplicate of the one she had given Jude,and would have given to any man.Phillotson brought it half-way to his lips,but withdrew it in doubt at her perplexing phrases:ultimately kissing the dead pasteboard with all the passionateness,and more than all the devotion,of a young man of eighteen.

The schoolmaster's was an unhealthy-looking,old-fashioned face,rendered more old-fashioned by his style of shaving.A certain gentlemanliness had been imparted to it by nature,suggesting an inherent wish to do rightly by all.His speech was a little slow,but his tones were sincere enough to make his hesitation no defect.His greying hair was curly,and radiated from a point in the middle of his crown.There were four lines across his forehead,and he only wore spectacles when reading at night.It was almost certainly a renunciation forced upon him by his academic purpose,rather than a distaste for women,which had hitherto kept him from closing with one of the sex in matrimony.

Such silent proceedings as those of this evening were repeated many and oft times when he was not under the eye of the boys,whose quick and penetrating regard would frequently become almost intolerable to the self-conscious master in his present anxious care for Sue,making him,in the grey hours of morning,dread to meet anew the gimlet glances,lest they should read what the dream within him was.

He had honourably acquiesced in Sue's announced wish that he was not often to visit her at the training school;but at length,his patience being sorely tried,he set out one Saturday afternoon to pay her an unexpected call.There the news of her departure -expulsion as it might almost have been considered -was flashed upon him without warning or mitigation as he stood at the door expecting in a few minutes to behold her face;and when he turned away he could hardly see the road before him.

Sue had,in fact,never written a line to her suitor on the subject,although it was fourteen days old.A short reflection told him that this proved nothing,a natural delicacy being as ample a reason for silence as any degree of blameworthiness.

They had informed him at the school where she was living,and having no immediate anxiety about her comfort his thoughts took the direction of a burning indignation against the training school committee.In his bewilderment Phillotson entered the adjacent cathedral,just now in a direly dismantled state by reason of the repairs.He sat down on a block of freestone,regardless of the dusty imprint it made on his breeches;and his listless eyes following the movements of the workmen he presently became aware that the reputed culprit,Sue's lover Jude,was one amongst them.

Jude had never spoken to his former hero since the meeting by the model of Jerusalem.Having inadvertently witnessed Phillotson's tentative courtship of Sue in the lane there had grown up in the younger man's mind a curious dislike to think of the elder,to meet him,to communicate in any way with him;and since Phillotson's success in obtaining at least her promise had become known to Jude,he had frankly recognized that he did not wish to see or hear of his senior any more,learn anything of his pursuits,or even imagine again what excellencies might appertain to his character.On this very day of the schoolmaster's visit Jude was expecting Sue,as she had promised;and when therefore he saw the school master in the nave of the building,saw,moreover,that he was coming to speak to him,he felt no little embarrassment;which Phillotson's own embarrassment prevented his observing.

Jude joined him,and they both withdrew from the other workmen to the spot where Phillotson had been sitting.Jude offered him a piece of sackcloth for a cushion,and told him it was dangerous to sit on the bare block.

'Yes;yes,'said Phillotson abstractedly,as he reseated himself,his eyes resting on the ground as if he were trying to remember where he was.'I won't keep you long.It was merely that I have heard that you have seen my little friend Sue recently.It occurred to me to speak to you on that account.I merely want to ask about her.'

'I think I know what!'Jude hurriedly said.'About her escaping from the training school,and her coming to me?'

'Yes.'