Also, I’d specified in the bolded setup that us not saying anything to her “didn’t seem to bother her, either.” So this isn’t just me shooting down possibilities until someone happens to guess the right one: the answer sort of needs to involve her not really having any reason to mind — or be disappointed — or expect us to marvel at how she’s miraculously walking around now, or whatever.
She was as nonchalant as the professor wasn’t, is my point.
Was the person named Ruth?
Heh. No.
(But, again: that joke wouldn’t really work, would it? If we’d all said, in unison, “Hi, Ruth,” then he could’ve quipped that he hadn’t realized we’d been Ruth-less; the whole point isn’t that her arrival alone sets up his remark, it’s that us saying nothing sets up his remark.)
When your professor said ruthless, did he mean “showing no pity or compassion”?
You noted that you “didn’t want to make things worse for her”, were you aware that she was having a bad day? Was she late to class?
Did anyone say anything when she entered? Did she? Did the professor?
Wild guess, did she walk with with a big piece of TP dangling from her shoe?
Was there something the group was supposed to have said?
Was there something about the situation that the professor didn’t understand?
Or something that the just-entered-the-room classmate didn’t understand?
How about the clothes someone or someones were wearing or not wearing?
Taking them in reverse order:
No, it wasn’t that she had a big piece of TP or whatever; that was why I noted that “I had nothing against her,” since I figure it’s only interesting enough for this thread if you’d scratch your head and think, ‘wait; why wouldn’t he have said something to her? He had nothing against her! And yet: the professor’s response only makes sense if he — and everyone else — could’ve helped her out, but chose to stay silent!’
When she entered, nobody — including her — said anything, which prompted the professor to say what he said.
She was running late to class, but I wasn’t aware that she was otherwise having a bad day.
Yep, that’s what the professor was getting at.
She wasn’t expecting us to say anything — and it’s not like we’d coordinated this, or discussed saying anything (or, for that matter, saying nothing) beforehand.
Does that suffice, or did you have something else in mind?
The professor understood the situation completely. The classmate who’d just entered the room didn’t.
Not sure what you have in mind, but, no, the clothes were irrelevant.
How about where the student entered the classroom? Important?
Uh, not really, no; I mean, it was a classroom with one door, and she entered the way you’d expect instead of Natasha Romanoffing in through a window or whatever. (I guess it’s important that we could all see her entering the classroom, or else us not saying anything could’ve been chalked up to us — not seeing her?)
Did the entrance coincide with something else that is relevant?
If the person entering had been a different person, would that have mattered?
I don’t believe anything else coincided with her entrance, and I think things would’ve gone the same if another classmate had walked in right then instead of her.
was the seating arrangement of the students relevant? maybe something like not scooting over to let her easily get to a seat?
Nope.
Had the professor just announced that something bad would happen to anyone who arrived late?
If so, was there a way such a person could have avoided the punishment, if they knew about it?
Had they just supplied the last of some necessary text, and the comment was because nobody offered to share?
That’s (pretty much) it!
The real bone of contention was, folks had been cutting class altogether — and, that morning, the professor looked out at too few students in the room and said what he must have been building up to for a while. And it only takes seconds to say: “I’ve had it with students not showing up! The next test will have a bonus-points question; just write Cokie Roberts.”
Immediately following that, a student arrived: only seconds late to class — and as ready to learn as those of us who’d been there seconds earlier — and none of us said anything to her, and you know the rest.
Whoops! I of course don’t have another one ready, because I can never think of these things. Somebody else please feel free to step in!
— it occurs to me that the professor had no way of knowing if one or more people intended to tell her after class. Or, for that matter, would tell those students cutting entirely.