And now I was sure that all was over
between my parents and myself. I be-
gan to wonder if I need really wait till
I was grown up before leaving home.
So miserably absorbed was I in think-
ing of this, and in pitying myself with
a consuming pity, that everything at
school seemed to pass like the shadow
of a dream. I blundered in whatever
I tried to do, was sharply scolded for
not hearing the teacher until she had
spoken my name three times, and was
holding on to myself desperately in my
effort to keep back a flood of tears,
when I became aware that something
was happening.

There suddenly was a perfect silence
in the room -- the sort of silence that
makes the heart beat too fast. The
mist swimming before me did not, I per-
ceived, come from my own eyes, but
from the changing colour of the air, the
usual transparency of which was being
tinged with yellow. The sultriness of
the day was deepening, and seemed to
carry a threat with it.

"Something is going to happen,"
thought I, and over the whole room