PALE HECATE:

(waving a composition book and indicating the grade marked in red at the top)

As for you, miss - as for you, indeed, surely you will recognize the third letter of the alphabet when y'have seen it?

STUDENT:

"C"

PALE HECATE:

Aye, a "C" it 'tis! You're a bright and clever one now after all, aren't y'lass?

(the class snickers)

And now, my brilliance, would you also be informing us as to what a grade signifies when it is thus put upon the page?

STUDENT:

Average.

PALE HECATE:

"Average." Yes, yes - and what else in your case, my iridescence? Well then, I'll be tellin' you in fine order. It stands for "cheat," my luminous one!

(The class sobers.)

For them that will do half when all is called for; for them that will slip through life at the edge of their minds, never once pushing into the interior to see what wonders are hiding there - content to drift along on whatever gets them by, cheating themselves, cheating the world, cheating Nature! That is what the "C" means, my dear child -

(She smiles)

- my pet

(They giggle; in rapid order she raps each on the head with her ruler)

- my laziest Queen of the Ethiopes!

[She exits and dims out.]

* * *