Miss Briggs seized her chalk significantly. It was time the new-comer had settled down.
"I'll tell you what," said Channah, "I'll go to Moishele's and buy you a ha'pny tiger nuts and a box of crayons. And I'll come back straight away."
"Promise!" he demanded in anguish.
"Emmes!" she said, invoking the Hebrew name of Truth.
"Emmes what?" He knew that Truth unsupported by an invocation to the Lord was a weak buttress.
"Emmes adoshem!" she said, her heart sinking at the perjury. But, she consoled herself, it was not as if she had sworn by the undiluted form of the oath, "Emmes adonoi!" from the violation of which solemnity there is no redemption.
Philip saw her disappear through the doors. A black cloud of loneliness enveloped him until he could hardly breathe. The terrifying sing-song of these young celebrants at their fathomless ceremony had begun again.
Twice one are two,
One and one are two!
Twice two are four,
Two and two are four!
Fantastic hieroglyphs danced across the blackboard at the dictate of Miss Briggs' chalk. The heavy minutes ticked and ticked in a reiteration of monochrome and despair.
Twice one are two,
One and one are two!