It began at the farther corner of the square, hard by the Principal, and spread so quickly through the groups near about, that in a minute the entire company were quietly made aware of something going notably wrong in their immediate presence.

There was no running to see it.

There seemed to be not so much as any verbal communication of the matter from mouth to mouth.

Rather a consciousness appeared to catch noiselessly from one to another as the knowledge of human intrusion comes to groups of deer in a park.

There was the same elevating of the head here and there, the same rounding of beautiful eyes.