ng and twisting.

A sharp whistle was heard, and Standard Six, the biggest
girls, set off, led by Miss Harby. Ursula, with her Standard
Five, followed after. She stood beside a smirking, grinning row
of girls, waiting in a narrow passage. What she was herself she
did not know.

Suddenly the sound of a piano was heard, and Standard Six set
off hollowly down the big room. The boys had entered by another
door. The piano played on, a march tune, Standard Five followed
to the door of the big room. Mr. Harby was seen away beyond at
his desk. Mr. Brunt guarded the other door of the room. Ursula's
class pushed up. She stood near them. They glanced and smirked
and shoved.

"Go on," said Ursula.

They tittered.

"Go on," said Ursula, for the piano continued.

The girls broke loosely into the room. Mr. Harby, who had
seemed immersed in some occupation, away at his desk, lifted his
head and thundered:

"Halt!"

There was a halt, the piano stopped. The boys who were just
starting through the other door, pushed back. The harsh, subdued
voice of Mr. Brunt was heard, then the booming shout of Mr.
Harby, from far down the room:

"Who told Standard Five girls to come in like that?"

Ursula crimsoned. Her girls were glancing up at her, smirking
their accusation.

"I sent them in, Mr. Harby," she said, in a clear, struggling
voice. There was a moment of silence. Then Mr. Harby roared from
the distance.

"Go back to your places, Standard Five girls."

The girls glanced up at Ursula, accusing, rather jeering,
fugitive. They pushed back. Ursula's heart hardened with
ignominious pain.

"Forward--march," came Mr. Brunt's voice, and the girls
set off, keeping time with the ranks of boys.

Ursula faced her class, some fifty-five boys and girls, who
stood filling the ranks of the desks. She felt utterly
nonexistent. She had no place nor being there. She faced the
block of children.

Down the room she heard the rapid firing of questions. She
stood before her class not knowing what to do. She waited
painfully. Her block of children, fifty unknown faces, watched
her, hostile, ready to jeer. She felt as if she were in torture
over a fire of faces. And on every side she was naked to them.
Of unutterable length and torture the seconds went by.

Then she gathered courage. She heard Mr. Brunt asking
questions in mental arithmetic. She stood near to her class, so
that her voice need not be raised too much, and faltering,
uncert