`` You did not obey me when I first ordered you to tell me the writer . You can not have the privilege of doing so now . Open the note , take the chalk , and do as I command you . '' Worms will turn , and even meek , mild , obedient little souls like Cecily may be goaded to the point of wild , sheer rebellion . `` I -- I wo n't ! '' she cried passionately . Mr. Perkins , martinet though he was , would hardly , I think , have inflicted such a punishment on Cecily , who was a favourite of his , had he known the real nature of that luckless missive . But , as he afterwards admitted , he thought it was merely a note from some other girl , of such trifling sort as school-girls are wont to write ; and moreover , he had already committed himself to the decree , which , like those of Mede and Persian , must not alter . To let Cecily off , after her mad defiance , would be to establish a revolutionary precedent . `` So you really think you wo n't ? '' he queried smilingly . `` Well , on second thoughts , you may take your choice . Either you will do as I have bidden you , or you will sit for three days with '' -- Mr. Perkins ' eye skimmed over the school-room to find a boy who was sitting alone -- `` with Cyrus Brisk . '' This choice of Mr. Perkins , who knew nothing of the little drama of emotions that went on under the routine of lessons and exercises in his domain , was purely accidental , but we took it at the time as a stroke of diabolical genius . It left Cecily no choice . She would have done almost anything before she would have sat with Cyrus Brisk . With flashing eyes she tore open the letter , snatched up the chalk , and dashed at the blackboard . In a few minutes the contents of that letter graced the expanse usually sacred to more prosaic compositions . I can not reproduce it verbatim , for I had no after opportunity of refreshing my memory . But I remember that it was exceedingly sentimental and exceedingly ill-spelled -- for Cecily mercilessly copied down poor Cyrus ' mistakes .
He wrote her that he wore her hare over his hart -- `` and he stole it , '' Cecily threw passionately over her shoulder at Mr. Perkins -- that her eyes were so sweet and lovely XXXXX he could n't find words nice enuf to describ them , that he could never forget how butiful she had looked in prar meeting the evening before , and that some meels he could n't eat for thinking of her , with more to the same effect and he signed it `` yours till deth us do part , Cyrus Brisk . ''
In after as at before for from that though to