midnight
Thus they parted . Jude watched her disappear in the direction of the hotel , and entered the railway station close by . Finding that it wanted three-quarters of an hour of the time at which he could get a train back to Alfredston , he strolled mechanically into the city as far as to the Fourways , where he stood as he had so often stood before , and surveyed Chief Street stretching ahead , with its college after college , in picturesqueness unrivalled except by such Continental vistas as the Street of Palaces in Genoa ; the lines of the buildings being as distinct in the morning air as in an architectural drawing . But Jude was far from seeing or criticizing these things ; they were hidden by an indescribable consciousness of Arabella 's midnight contiguity , a sense of degradation at his revived experiences with her , of her appearance as she lay asleep at dawn , which set upon his motionless face a look as of one accurst . If he could only have felt resentment towards her he would have been less unhappy ; but he pitied while he contemned her . Jude turned and retraced his steps . Drawing again towards the station he started at hearing his name pronounced -- less at the name than at the voice .