Page:Hardy - Jude the Obscure, 1896.djvu/476

 VI

place was the door of Jude's lodging in the outskirts of Christminster—far from the precincts of St. Silas's, where he had formerly lived, which saddened him to sickness. The rain was coming down. A woman in shabby black stood on the door-step talking to Jude, who held the door in his hand.

"I am lonely, destitute, and houseless—that's what I am! Father has turned me out-of-doors after borrowing every penny I'd got, to put it into his business, and then accusing me of laziness when I was only waiting for a situation. I am at the mercy of the world! If you can't take me and help me, Jude, I must go to the workhouse, or to something worse. Only just now two undergraduates winked at me as I came along. 'Tis hard for a woman to keep virtuous where there's so many young men!"

The woman in the rain who spoke thus was Arabella, the evening being that of the day after Sue's remarriage with Phillotson.

"I am sorry for you, but I am only in lodgings," said Jude, coldly.

"Then you turn me away?"

"I'll give you enough to get food and lodging for a few days."

"Oh, but can't you have the kindness to take me in? I cannot endure going to a public-house to lodge; and I am so lonely. Please, Jude, for old times' sake!"

"No, no," said Jude, hastily. "I don't want to be reminded of those things; and if you talk about them I shall not help you."