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The princess looked in a scared way at her father's eyes

glittering close to her; the red patches on her face came and

went, and it was plain that she understood nothing and was so

frightened that her fear would prevent her understanding any of

her father's further explanations, however clear they might be.

Whether it was the teacher's fault or the pupil's, this same

thing happened every day: the princess' eyes grew dim, she could

not see and could not hear anything, but was only conscious of

her stern father's withered face close to her, of his breath and

the smell of him, and could think only of how to get away quickly

to her own room to make out the problem in peace. The old man was

beside himself: moved the chair on which he was sitting noisily

backward and forward, made efforts to control himself and not

become vehement, but almost always did become vehement, scolded,

and sometimes flung the exercise book away.

The princess gave a wrong answer.