Page:Hardy - Jude the Obscure, 1896.djvu/144

 minutes, unfortunately, for I am in the middle of a job out here."

"Your cousin is so terribly clever that she criticises it unmercifully," said Phillotson, with good-humored satire. "She is quite sceptical as to its correctness."

"No, Mr. Phillotson, I am not—altogether! I hate to be what is called a clever girl—there are too many of that sort now!" answered Sue, sensitively. "I only meant—I don't know what I meant—except that it was what you don't understand!"

"I know your meaning," said Jude, ardently (although he did not). "And I think you are quite right."

"That's a good Jude—I know you believe in me!" She impulsively seized his hand, and leaving a reproachful look on the school-master turned away to Jude, her voice revealing a tremor which she herself felt to be absurdly uncalled for by sarcasm so gentle. She had not the least conception how the hearts of the twain went out to her at this momentary revelation of feeling, and what a complication she was building up thereby in the futures of both.

The model wore too much of an educational aspect for the children not to tire of it soon, and a little later in the afternoon they were all marched back to Lumsdon, Jude returning to his work. He watched the juvenile flock, in their clean frocks and pinafores, filing down the street towards the country beside Phillotson and Sue, and a sad, dissatisfied sense of being out of the scheme of the latters' lives had possession of him. Phillotson had invited him to walk out and see them on Friday evening, when there would be no lessons to give to Sue, and Jude had eagerly promised to avail himself of the opportunity.

Meanwhile the scholars and teachers moved homeward, and the next day, on looking on the black-board in Sue's class, Phillotson was surprised to find upon it, skilfully drawn in chalk, a perspective view of Jerusalem, with every building shown in its place.