“Twice two is four!” Debby found herself nervously repeating it with them under her breath. Would Mr. Hunt never speak!
She caught Susy’s eye; Susy was looking penitent enough to touch a heart of stone, Debby thought. So, for that matter, were most of the girls.
Debby began to realize that anything begun in haste might require repenting of at leisure.
And then Mr. Hunt pronounced sentence, prefacing it first with a few remarks, which, if brief, were none the less pointed.
He considered their recent conduct utterly inexcusable; it had involved not only a wilful and deliberate breaking of rules, but, in intention, great discourtesy and disrespect towards a gentleman who was a comparative stranger to them, and, in a sense, the guest of the class.
He should, therefore, suspend them in a body for one week; they could report to him, before school opened, next Monday morning; also, it being an implied condition that all competitors for the Sargent should be pupils in good standing, it was an open question whether or no they would have the right to try for it. He would decide upon that later. They were dismissed.
Out in the yard, fourteen very crestfallen young people looked at each other in dismay.
Not to be allowed to try for the Sargent! Each of the fourteen felt an immediate and strong conviction that he or she would have been among the prize winners.
To be suspended for a whole week!
Ruth mopped her eyes openly. Oh, dear, what would her mother and father say!