“You are aware that there is a strict rule against tardiness—especially at meals—are you not?” Miss Debbs could ask the simplest question in an highly histrionic manner, as though the weight of worlds depended on the answer.
Now Billie answered meekly:
“Yet you deliberately enter this hall at five minutes past the hour?”
Billie raised her eyes to meet the boring glance of the elocution teacher.
“Not deliberately, Miss Debbs. We—I had an accident.”
Miss Debbs brushed the excuse aside with a dramatic sweep of the hand.
“Nevertheless, you admit that you were late?”
Billie could scarcely hope to deny it in the face of all the evidence against her. Nevertheless, she repeated, meekly:
“Yes, Miss Debbs.”