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"Give out the history readers," she said to the monitors

There was dead silence As she stood there, she could hear

again the ticking of the clock, and the chock of piles of books

taken out of the low cupboard Then came the faint flap of books

on the desks The children passed in silence, their hands

working in unison They were no longer a pack, but each one

separated into a silent, closed thing

"Take page 125, and read that chapter," said Ursula

There was a click of e, and bent their heads obediently to read And they

read,violently, went and sat in her high

chair The blubbering of the boy continued The strident voice

of Mr Brunt, the roar of Mr Harby, calass partition And now and then a pair of eyes rose fro-book, rested on her ai, her eyes watching the class,

unseeing She was quite still, and weak She felt that she could

not raise her hand from the desk If she sat there for ever, she

felt she could not ain, nor utter a command It was a

quarter-past four She al of the school,

when she would be alone

The class began to recover its ease, the tension relaxed

Willia orders for the