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eleven," I said. "I got here just as fast as I could and I almost broke my neck doing it. I thought it was something very, very important the way you acted, and if I'd known it wasn't anything that really mattered, that you didn't want to bother with until you could take your own sweet time about it-well, believe me I had plenty of other things I could do. I'm not like some of you young girls with nothing to think about but getting your lunch on time and how you can doll yourselves all up like the president of the United States or something. I tell you teachers weren't like that, in my day. They knew how to handle their jobs, and they weren't always calling parents up every five minutes and writing notes and…"
    I laid it into her. I told that young lady a few things she'd be a long time forgetting.
    She stood staring at me, her mouth opening and closing, her face getting redder and redder.
    "All right," she said finally, her voice so low I could hardly hear it. "I'll be very happy to talk to you now. I have a feeling that, in view of your opinion of me, there isn't a great deal to be said, but-"
    "Go on," I said. "What's Bob supposed to have done now?"
    "It's more what he hasn't done, Mrs. Talbert. He's done almost no work since the term started. He's failing in every one of his subjects."
    "Why, I-well, why do you let him?" I said. "He's a smart boy. Why don't you see that he studies?"
    "Mrs. Talbert," she said, "the teachers in this school have an average class load of sixty students, approximately twice the number they should have. We can't spend all our time with one pupil or even a very large part of our time."
    "Well, goodness," I said. "No one asked you to. You don't have to, if you know your business. Why, when I was in school, there was only one teacher for six grades and she-"
    "No doubt," she said. "I'm sure she was much more efficient than we teachers are now. To get back to the present, however, Robert is failing in his work and we don't seem to be able to help him. We wondered whether there wasn't something you and Mr. Talbert could do."
    "Well, I don't know," I said. "We'll certainly do anything we can, I'll give Bob a good talking to, and-"
    "He seems to be very preoccupied and moody. Is there- uh-a situation at home which might tend to disturb him?"
    "Why, of course, there isn't!" I said. "If there's anything wrong anywhere, it's right here at school. And if you ask me, you don't have to look very far to see what it is."
    She pressed her lips together. "Mrs. Talbert," she said. "I'm only trying to help-"
    "Well, don't trouble yourself," I said. "We don't need any advice about how to run our family. What else is Bob supposed to have done?"
    "He's supposed," she said, "to attend school five days a week. Five days, Mrs. Talbert. Not two or three."
    "Well," I said, "he does, doesn't he? I mean, I know he's been sick a lot, but-"
    "He has been sick, then, Mrs. Talbert?" There was a mean, funny little grin on her face. "You did write the excuses he brought us?"
    "Why-well, naturally," I said. "When he's sick and has to stay at home, I write an excuse."
    "I see," she said, that little grin getting meaner and tighter. "Well, why don't we do this, Mrs. Talbert? Why don't you and I and Bob all get together and see if we can't talk this thing out?"
    I said that suited me just fine, the sooner the better. "Of course, I wouldn't think of asking you to miss your lunch, Miss Brundage. But-"
    "I've already missed it," she said, "I'm afraid it's too late to eat now. So if you'd like to telephone home, and summon Robert from his sickbed, perhaps we can talk a few minutes before my afternoon classes start."
    I didn't understand what she meant for a moment. It simply hadn't occurred to me that Bob hadn't gone to school, and the way she'd led me on, tricking me into making a fool of myself, well, I felt like choking her.
    "Well?" she said. "Would you like to do that, Mrs. Talbert?"
    "No," I said, and believe me if looks could