One day after class, the professor asked the class to hand in their homework to the teacher’s desk at the front. When the students sitting at the back rows heard this, they passed their homework to Sherry in the front row and asked her to pass their homework to the professor, so that they could leave the classroom directly from the back door. At that moment, Sophie was in a hurry to leave, so following others, she passed her homework to her desk mate. To her great discontent, her desk mate reacted very impatiently: “How troublesome! Hand it in yourself!”

Her aloofness really irritated Sophie. She bounced up, walked quickly to the teacher’s desk and thrust her homework into the professor’s hands. The professor looked at her and then at her desk mate, but said nothing. Sophie walked off without looking back. 

The next day, when the bell rang, the professor walked in wearing a sweet smile. Today’s lesson bored Sophie very much and she nearly fell asleep. Her desk mate beside her also very looked very serious. Sophie felt very bored. She sat in her desk reading a novel she had just rent. 

For 20 minutes the professor kept reading aloud, while Sophie read her novel secretly with amounting interest. Finally the text was finished and there left still a few minutes before break. The professor did not begin the excise part as usual, but paused for a few seconds. 

Sophie was so indulged in the novel that she did not notice the slight change in class. She lowered her head and kept reading, as the professor changed English into Chinese: “I remember when I was a student like you，I also read novels in class.”

“She does mean me myself! She stands quite a distant from me, yet she discovers my secret.” Sophie thought in her mind, quite struck. She closed her book quickly and looked up at the professor. The professor said: “So, when other people treats me the same way, I can forgive her. I know I was once as young as her.”

Forgiveness can be so natural and simple! And it needs great effort to achieve this kind of simplicity. She understood the profound meaning at last. She looked at her professor in the eye. What a beautiful mind. 

For the rest of the class, Sophie listened very carefully. She had learnt to respect others. The professor looked at Sophie and smiled satisfactorily. 

The next day in class the professor talked about Martain Louser King’s speech. So the students opened their books and listened to her explaining the language points in the new text. It was a very famous speech, and Sophie listened with keen pleasure. However, Sophie’s desk mate was not enjoying the text. She was stirring her school bag, and looking here and there. Sophie guessed she had forgotten to bring her textbook, and was too shy to borrow from her. Sophie felt very funny. 

At last, her desk mate could do nothing but stare at space. “How poor she is!” thought Sophie, as she moved her own book to the middle. Then both of them could read the passage and listen carefully to the professor. When Sophie looked up again, she saw the professor smiling to her. She smiled, too. Looking at the professor’s clear eyes, she thought, any slight ideas in her mind could not escape from her professor’s eyes. If the idea were a good one the professor would encourage her with the satisfaction in the eyes, and if the idea was not good the professor would alarm her. This was truly a kind of profound tacit between two minds.