er, aren't we, and never, never, vex each other any more?" She
looked up trustfully, and her voice seemed trying to nestle in his
breast.

"I shall always care for you!" said Jude.

"And I for you. Because you are single-hearted, and forgiving to
your faulty and tiresome little Sue!"

He looked away, for that epicene tenderness of hers was too
harrowing. Was it that which had broken the heart of the poor
leader-writer; and was he to be the next one? ... But Sue was so
dear! ... If he could only get over the sense of her sex, as she
seemed to be able to do so easily of his, what a comrade she would
make; for their difference of opinion on conjectural subjects only
drew them closer together on matters of daily human experience. She
was nearer to him than any other woman he had ever met, and he could
scarcely believe that time, creed, or absence, would ever divide him
from her.

But his grief at her incredulities returned. They sat on till she
fell asleep again, and he nodded in his chair likewise. Whenever
he aroused himself he turned her things, and made up the fire anew.
About six o'clock he awoke completely, and lighting a candle, found
that her clothes were dry. Her chair being a far more comfortable
one than his she still slept on inside his great-coat, looking warm
as a new bun and boyish as a Ganymede. Placing the garments by her
and touching her on the shoulder he went downstairs, and washed
himself by starlight in the yard.

V

When he returned she was dressed as usual.

"Now could I get out without anybody seeing me?" she asked. "The
town is not yet astir."

"But you have had no breakfast."

"Oh, I don't want any! I fear I ought not to have run away from that
school! Things seem so different in the cold light of morning, don't
they? What Mr. Phillotson will say I don't know! It was quite by
his wish that I went there. He is the only man in the world for whom
I have any respect or fear. I hope he'll forgive me; but he'll scold
me dreadfully, I expect!"

"I'll go to him and explain--" began Jude.

"Oh no, you shan't. I don't care for him! He may think what he
likes--I shall do just as I choose!"

"But you just this moment said--"

"Well, if I did, I shall do as I like for all him! I have thought of
what I shall do--go to the sister of one of my fellow-students in the
training-school, who has asked me to visit her. She has a school
near Shaston, about eighteen miles from