"Well, anything else?"
"He was talking to Mrs. Wyse."
"And what was he saying?"
"I couldn't hear, mother, so I couldn't."
"And why didn't you listen? What am I slaving myself to send you to school for?"
And so they were listening with such eagerness now. They were looking down at Rebecca as if she were the object of the whole discussion. Her thoughts were beginning to well into a swirling unconsciousness.... Great sounds, like those of roaring cataracts and the drumming of mighty armies were rolling up to her ears.
Father O'Keeffe and Mrs. Wyse now came down the schoolroom together. As they passed Rebecca, Father O'Keeffe beckoned to her with his riding-whip in the way one might call to a very inferior hireling. Shaken by unique and powerful impulses, she went out into the hall-way to meet her superiors.... Instantaneously she knew what had happened—they knew.
"Well, isn't this a nice thing?" began Father O'Keeffe.
"Ye might say it's a nice thing, Father!" echoed Mrs. Wyse.
"An enormous thing!"