He paused at “chagrined,” and repeated it impressively, so that the guttural grimness of its second syllable sounded most unpleasant. Appalled and astonished must be bad, but to be chagrined, as Mr. Bryan said it, must be terrible.
He was chagrined, so it proved, that a class could show such deplorable ignorance concerning the very rudiments of number.
It was Emmy Lou who displayed it, when she was called to the blackboard by Mr. Bryan. He called a different little girl each day, with discriminating impartiality. When doing so, Mr. Bryan would often express a hope that his teachers would have no favourites.
Emmy Lou went to the board.
“If a man born in eighteen hundred and nine, lives—” began Mr. Bryan. Then he turned to speak to Miss Jenny.
Emmy Lou took the chalk and stood on her toes to reach the board.
"While the children drew, Mr. Bryan would lean on Miss Jenny's desk,
rearrange his white necktie, and talk to Miss Jenny.”