 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 schoolmaster 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.«
    »Well« - Jude for a moment felt an unprincipled and fiendish wish to
annihilate his rival at all cost. By the exercise of that treachery which love
for the same woman renders possible to men the most honourable in every other
relation of life, he could send off Phillotson in agony and defeat by saying
that the scandal was true, and that Sue had irretrievably committed herself with
him. But his action did not respond for a moment to his animal instinct; and
what he said was, »I am glad of your kindness in coming to talk plainly to me
about it. You know what they say? - that I ought to marry her.«
    »What!«
    »And I wish with all my soul I could!«
    Phillotson trembled, and his naturally pale face acquired a corpse-like
sharpness in its lines. »I had no idea that it was of this nature
