Episode in Palmetto [antikvár]

chapter i FRIDAY AFTERNOON The shrill clamouring of the dismissal bell in the hallway was like a long-sought wish that fmally comes true. Standing rigidly besides the rostrum desk, her knees pressed warmly together, Vernona Stevens was teliing herself over and over that she must be calm until the last of the twenty-eight pupils had left the classroom. It was late September and a few minutes past three o'clock on Friday afternoon, the end of the first week of the school term, and since Monday she had asked herself time after time why she had not gone to live in Washington with Ynez when she first had the opportunity. Her older sister, who could be either rashly impulsive or coolly calculating at will, and who had given up a well-paid Government civil-service position to be supported by a re-tired rear-admiral—he was a wealthy friend who had taken a personal interest in her, as Ynez explained it—anyway, Ynez had tried to convince Vernona that she did not have the temperament to make her a schoolteacher, and that she would be much happier enjoying the exciting life in Washington. Instead of going to Washington, however, Vernona had borrowed five hundred dollars from an uncle and had taken a certificate course at the State teachers' college. Her purpose had been to pro ve to herself that it was not inevitable for her to live like her sister, much less be like her, even though they were so much alike in many ways that they were often mis-takenly thought to be twins. She had no intention of going