Whither they had gone nobody knew, chiefly because nobody cared to know. Any one sufficiently curious to trace the steps of such an obscure pair might have discovered without great trouble that they had taken advantage of his adaptive craftsmanship to enter on a shifting, almost nomadic, life, which was not without its pleasantness for a time.
Wherever Jude heard of free-stone work to be done, thither he went, choosing by preference places remote from his old haunts and Sue’s. He laboured at a job, long or briefly, till it was finished; and then moved on.
Two whole years and a half passed thus. Sometimes he might have been found shaping the mullions of a country mansion, sometimes setting the parapet of a town-hall, sometimes ashlaring an hotel at Sandbourne, sometimes a museum at Casterbridge, sometimes as far down as Exonbury, sometimes at Stoke-Barehills.
Later still he was at Kennetbridge, a thriving town not more than a dozen miles south of Marygreen, this being his nearest approach to the village where he was known; for he had a sensitive dread of being questioned as to his life and fortunes by those who had been acquainted with him during his ardent young manhood of study and promise, and his brief and unhappy married life at that time.
At some of these places he would be detained for months, at others only a few weeks. His curious and sudden antipathy to ecclesiastical work, both episcopal and noncomformist, which had risen in him when suffering under a smarting sense of misconception, remained with him in cold blood, less from any fear of renewed censure than from an ultra-conscientiousness which would not allow him to seek a living out of those who would disapprove of his ways; also, too, from a sense of inconsistency between his former dogmas and his present practice, hardly a shred of the beliefs with which he had first gone up to Christminster now remaining with him. He was mentally approaching the position which Sue had occupied when he first met her.
On a Saturday evening in May, nearly three years after Arabella’s recognition of Sue and himself at the agricultural show, some of those who there encountered each other met again.
It was the spring fair at Kennetbridge, and, though this ancient trade-meeting had much dwindled from its dimensions of former times, the long straight street of the borough presented a lively scene about midday. At this hour a light trap, among other vehicles, was driven into the town by the north road, and up to the door of a temperance inn.
There alighted two women, one the driver, an ordinary country person, the other a finely built figure in the deep mourning of a widow. Her sombre suit, of pronounced cut, caused her to appear a little out of place in the medley and bustle of a provincial fair.
"I will just find out where it is, Anny," said the widow-lady to her companion, when the horse and cart had been taken by a man who came forward: "and then I’ll come back, and meet you here; and we’ll go in and have something to eat and drink. I begin to feel quite a sinking."
读书笔记
是否公开
11
-
“行啊。”另一个说。“我原来可打算上花格旅馆,要么杰克旅馆。禁酒旅馆里头你搞不到什么好东西吃。”
读书笔记
是否公开
11
-
"With all my heart," said the other. "Though I would sooner have put up at the Chequers or The Jack. You can’t get much at these temperance houses."
"Now, don’t you give way to gluttonous desires, my child," said the woman in weeds reprovingly. "This is the proper place. Very well: we’ll meet in half an hour, unless you come with me to find out where the site of the new chapel is?"
The companions then went their several ways, the one in crape walking firmly along with a mien of disconnection from her miscellaneous surroundings. Making inquiries she came to a hoarding, within which were excavations denoting the foundations of a building; and on the boards without one or two large posters announcing that the foundation-stone of the chapel about to be erected would be laid that afternoon at three o’clock by a London preacher of great popularity among his body.
Having ascertained thus much the immensely weeded widow retraced her steps, and gave herself leisure to observe the movements of the fair. By and by her attention was arrested by a little stall of cakes and ginger-breads, standing between the more pretentious erections of trestles and canvas. It was covered with an immaculate cloth, and tended by a young woman apparently unused to the business, she being accompanied by a boy with an octogenarian face, who assisted her.
"Upon my--senses!" murmured the widow to herself. "His wife Sue-- if she is so!" She drew nearer to the stall. "How do you do, Mrs. Fawley?" she said blandly.
读书笔记
是否公开
17
-
苏脸色一变,虽说隔着阿拉贝拉的黑面纱,她还是认出她来了。
读书笔记
是否公开
17
-
Sue changed colour and recognized Arabella through the crape veil.
"How are you, Mrs. Cartlett?" she said stiffly. And then perceiving Arabella’s garb her voice grew sympathetic in spite of herself. "What?--you have lost----"
"My poor husband. Yes. He died suddenly, six weeks ago, leaving me none too well off, though he was a kind husband to me. But whatever profit there is in public-house keeping goes to them that brew the liquors, and not to them that retail ’em.... And you, my little old man! You don’t know me, I expect?"
"Yes, I do. You be the woman I thought wer my mother for a bit, till I found you wasn’t," replied Father Time, who had learned to use the Wessex tongue quite naturally by now.
读书笔记
是否公开
21
-
“好啦。这没关系。我算是朋友好啦。”
读书笔记
是否公开
21
-
"All right. Never mind. I am a friend."
读书笔记
是否公开
22
-
“裘德,”苏突然说,“你端着这个盘子到月台去——我看又有火车到啦。”
读书笔记
是否公开
22
-
"Juey," said Sue suddenly, "go down to the station platform with this tray-- there’s another train coming in, I think."
读书笔记
是否公开
23
-
他走之后,阿拉贝拉继续说:“可怜的小子,他这辈子别想出息个人样儿啦!他真是不知道我就是他妈?”
读书笔记
是否公开
23
-
When he was gone Arabella continued: "He’ll never be a beauty, will he, poor chap! Does he know I am his mother really?"
读书笔记
是否公开
24
-
“不知道。他觉着他爹妈总有点神秘地方——别的也没什么。裘德要等他再大点,再跟他说明白。”
读书笔记
是否公开
24
-
"No. He thinks there is some mystery about his parentage--that’s all. Jude is going to tell him when he is a little older."
读书笔记
是否公开
25
-
“可你怎么会做这个生意呢?我可真没想到。”
读书笔记
是否公开
25
-
"But how do you come to be doing this? I am surprised."
读书笔记
是否公开
26
-
“这不过是临时凑合着干——我们这会儿有点困难,瞎想出来的。”
读书笔记
是否公开
26
-
"It is only a temporary occupation--a fancy of ours while we are in a difficulty."
读书笔记
是否公开
27
-
“那你还跟他一块儿过喽?”
读书笔记
是否公开
27
-
"Then you are living with him still?"
读书笔记
是否公开
28
-
“不错。”
读书笔记
是否公开
28
-
"Yes."
读书笔记
是否公开
29
-
“结过婚啦?”
读书笔记
是否公开
29
-
"Married?"
读书笔记
是否公开
30
-
“当然。”
读书笔记
是否公开
30
-
"Of course."
读书笔记
是否公开
31
-
“有孩子?”
读书笔记
是否公开
31
-
"Any children?"
读书笔记
是否公开
32
-
“两个。
读书笔记
是否公开
32
-
"Two."
读书笔记
是否公开
33
-
“我看还有一个也差不多啦。”
读书笔记
是否公开
33
-
"And another coming soon, I see."
读书笔记
是否公开
34
-
苏经她这么毫无礼貌、刨根问底地追,极不自在,她的柔美的小嘴颤动起来。
读书笔记
是否公开
34
-
Sue writhed under the hard and direct questioning, and her tender little mouth began to quiver.
读书笔记
是否公开
35
-
“哎呀——糟糕啦,这可有什么难受的!旁人家得意还不够呢!”
读书笔记
是否公开
35
-
"Lord--I mean goodness gracious--what is there to cry about? Some folks would be proud enough!"
"It is not that I am ashamed--not as you think! But it seems such a terribly tragic thing to bring beings into the world-- so presumptuous--that I question my right to do it sometimes!"
"Take it easy, my dear.... But you don’t tell me why you do such a thing as this? Jude used to be a proud sort of chap-- above any business almost, leave alone keeping a standing."
"Perhaps my husband has altered a little since then. I am sure he is not proud now!" And Sue’s lips quivered again. "I am doing this because he caught a chill early in the year while putting up some stonework of a music-hall, at Quartershot, which he had to do in the rain, the work having to be executed by a fixed day. He is better than he was; but it has been a long, weary time! We have had an old widow friend with us to help us through it; but she’s leaving soon."
读书笔记
是否公开
39
-
“呃,感谢上帝,打他没了,我也是正正派派在过日子,心无二用。你怎么想起来卖姜汁饼呢?”
读书笔记
是否公开
39
-
"Well, I am respectable too, thank God, and of a serious way of thinking since my loss. Why did you choose to sell gingerbreads?"
"That’s a pure accident. He was brought up to the baking business, and it occurred to him to try his hand at these, which he can make without coming out of doors. We call them Christminster cakes. They are a great success."