Ambition in a Surplice — Jude the Obscure

A new thought arrives while Jude is still shabby at Marygreen: a man can preach and do good without double-firsts. The bishopric, he now sees, was mundane ambition masquerading in a surplice. A village curacy might be the purgatorial course a remorseful man can earn. He does nothing to advance it for a stagnant stretch of headstones, a returned purchase to the farmers who still nod.

Sue's letter creates the human interest the new intention needed. She has a Queen's Scholarship and is entering the training college at Melchester, where there is also a theological college. He tells himself the ecclesiastical city suits humble study, and concedes that his excessive interest is of her making. Christmas passes. A second letter, passionate and lonely, begs him to come at once. Phillotson advised the school; she wishes she had never listened. Jude packs with a lighter heart.

In the Close she is clipped and pruned by discipline, yet an under-brightness still shows. She is hungry on college rations; he feeds her, and she examines his mason's fingers as if buying a glove. When he names the umbrella, she admits she has promised to marry Phillotson in two years and take a double school. He says it is right. His eyes do not. Next day he edges into cathedral repairs, takes lodgings that would not disgrace a curate, unpacks photographs of his own carvings, and hires a harmonium for chant practice.