quickly as possible, hurried to a chair, and snatched up a copy of the examination that was lying on its broad arm. At the first glance he thought that he could answer all the questions; a second glance re¬ vealed four that meant nothing to him. For a mo¬ ment he was dizzy with hope and despair, and then, all at once, he felt quite calm. He pulled off his goloshes and prepared to go to work.
Within three minutes the noise had subsided. There was a rustling as the boys took off their baabaa coats and goloshes, but after that there was no sound save the slow steps of the proctors pacing up and down the aisle. Once Hugh looked up, thinking desperately, almost seizing an idea that Boated nebulous and necessary before him. A proctor that he knew caught his eye and smiled fatuously. Hugh did not smile back. He could have cried in his fury. The idea was gone forever.
Some of the students began to write imme¬ diately; some of them leaned back and stared at the ceiling; some of them chewed their pencils nerv¬ ously; some of them leaned forward mercilessly pounding a knee; some of them kept running one Dr both hands through their hair; some of them wrote a little and then paused to gaze blankly be¬ fore them or to tap their teeth with a pen or pen:il: all of them were concentrating with an intensity chat made the silence electric;
