Page 287 (2/2)

over a fire of faces And on every side she was naked to theth 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 ,

uncertain, she said: "Seven hats at twopence ha'penny each?"

A grin went over the faces of the class, seeing her co Then some hands shot up like blades,

and she asked for the answer

The day passed incredibly slowly She never knehat to do,

there caaps, when she wason soirl for

inforo on with it properly The children were her masters She

deferred to them She could always hear Mr Brunt Like a

h, inhu, oblivious of everything And before this

inhuman nuet away from it There it was, this class of fifty collective

children, depending on her for command, for command it hated and

resented It made her feel she could not breathe: she must

suffocate, it was so inhuman They were so many, that they were

not children They were a squadron She could not speak as she

would to a child, because they were not individual children,

they were a collective, inhu