, in his present frame of mind
he was indifferent to the fact that Arabella was his wife indeed.
    The compartment that she served emptied itself of visitors, and after a
brief thought he entered it, and went forward to the counter. Arabella did not
recognize him for a moment. Then their glances met. She started; till a humorous
impudence sparkled in her eyes, and she spoke.
    »Well, I'm blest! I thought you were underground years ago!«
    »Oh!«
    »I never heard anything of you, or I don't know that I should have come
here. But never mind! What shall I treat you to this afternoon? A Scotch and
soda? Come, anything that the house will afford, for old acquaintance' sake!«
    »Thanks, Arabella,« said Jude without a smile. »But I don't want anything
more than I've had.« The fact was that her unexpected presence there had
destroyed at a stroke his momentary taste for strong liquor as completely as if
it had whisked him back to his milk-fed infancy.
    »That's a pity, now you could get it for nothing.«
    »How long have you been here?«
    »About six weeks. I returned from Sydney three months ago. I always liked
this business, you know.«
    »I wonder you came to this place!«
    »Well, as I say, I thought you were gone to glory, and being in London I saw
the situation in an advertisement. Nobody was likely to know me here, even if I
had minded, for I was never in Christminster in my growing up.«
    »Why did you return from Australia?«
    »Oh, I had my reasons.... Then you are not a Don yet?«
    »No.«
    »Not even a Reverend?«
    »No.«
    »Nor so much as a Rather Reverend dissenting gentleman?«
    »I am as I was.«
    »True - you look so.« She idly allowed her fingers to rest on the pull of
the beer-engine as she inspected him critically. He observed that her hands were
smaller and whiter than when he had lived with her, and that on the hand which
pulled the engine she wore an ornamental ring set with what seemed to be real
sapphires - which they were, indeed, and were much admired as such by the young
men who frequented the bar.
    »So you pass as having a living husband,« he continued.
    »Yes. I thought it