Miss Spence gasped.

So did the pupils.
The whole room filled with a swelling conglomerate "O-O-O-O-H!" As for Penrod himself, the walls reeled with the shock.

He sat with his mouth open, a mere lump of stupefaction.

For the appalling words that he had hurled at the teacher were as inexplicable to him as to any other who heard them.
Nothing is more treacherous than the human mind; nothing else so loves to play the Iscariot.

Even when patiently bullied into a semblance of order and training, it may prove but a base and shifty servant.