humourous, half-contemptuous reserve. They let themselves appear for
what they were--infant savages discontented with food, weather and
education.

I will not detail the incidents of that morning. The episodes that
were on other mornings games were today tortures. There was the
Torture of Losing Things, the Torture of Not Hearing, the Torture of
Many Noises, the Torture of Sudden Alarm, the Torture of Outright
Defiance, the Torture of Expressed Contempt. When twelve struck and
the children were free, Miss Jones was not far from a nervous panic
that can be called, without any exaggeration, incipient madness. The
neuralgia tore at her brain, her own self-contempt tore at her
heart, her baffled impotence bewildered and blinded her. She did not
leave the schoolroom with the children, but went to the broad
window-sill and sat there looking out into the dreary prospect.
Then, suddenly for no reason except general weakness and physical
and spiritual collapse she began to cry.

Jeremy was considered to have a cold, and was, therefore, not
permitted to accompany his mother and sisters on an exciting
shopping expedition, which would certainly lead as far as old
Poole's, the bookseller, and might even extend to Martins', the
pastrycook, who made lemon biscuits next door to the Cathedral. He
was, therefore, in a very bad temper indeed when he returned sulkily
to the schoolroom. He stood for a moment there unaware that there
was anybody in the room, hesitating as to whether he should continue
"A Flat Iron for a Farthing" or hunt up Hamlet. Suddenly he heard
the sound of sobbing. He turned and saw Miss Jones.

He would have fled had flight been in any way possible, but she had