Then all at once they heard: “Hush-sh.” The Vice-Directress had entered the room; quite an event. Altimare raised her eyes, but only for an instant, and her lids quivered. She went on making lint. To avoid a sensation, the Vice-Directress bent over two or three frames, and made a few remarks. At last:
“Altimare, the Directress wishes to see you.”
Altimare stood up, erect and rigid, and passed straight down through two rows of pupils without looking either to right or left. The girls kept silence and worked industriously.
“Holy Mother, do thou help her,” said Caterina Spaccapietra under her breath.
“My married sister told me that Zola’s books are not fit to be read,” said Giovanna Casacalenda.
“That means that they may be read, but that it wouldn’t do to say before gentlemen that one had read them.”
“Oh! what a number of books I have read that no one knows anything about,” exclaimed Avigliana.
“I know of a marriage that never came off,” said Minichini, “because the fiancée let out that she read the Dame aux Camélias.”
“La Dame aux Camélias! how interesting it must be! Who has read it, girls?”
“Not I, nor I, nor I,” in chorus, accompanied by gentle sighs.