sh mistress's
heart, it was her duty to be bright and alert; however exhausted her own
stock of patience, she must still be a female Job in her treatment of
her many pupils. A school-mistress must banish her individuality as a
woman on the threshold of the form-room; while on duty she must banish
every outside interest from her mind. No lying in bed, with her face to
the pillow; no weeping far into the night. Headache and swollen eyelids
are not for her. If her love-story goes wrong, she must lock her sorrow
in her own heart. What wonder if, as a result, her mind grows bitter
and her tongue grows sharp!

"That's a lesson for me! I must never, never allow myself to fall in
love!" sighed Claire to herself. It was a depressing necessity, but
vaguely she allowed herself to dream of a distant Someday, when the ban
should be removed. Something might happen to set her free. Something
most certainly _would_ happen! Optimistic one-and-twenty is ready
enough to face a short term of renunciation, but it resolutely refuses
to believe in its continuance.

A shadow fell over Claire's happy face as the practical application of
this resolve came into her mind. Erskine Fanshawe! At the moment he
was the one masculine figure on her horizon, but she did not disguise
from herself that of all the men she had met, he attracted her the most.
What a mercy that she had had the resolution to put a stop to a
friendship which might have ended in unfitting her for the work in hand!
It had been hard to refuse the desired information, but the fact that
the second refusal had been twice as hard as the first was in itself a
proof of the wisdom of her decision. And then, in illogical girlish
fashion, Claire fell to wondering if perchance Captain Fanshawe would
discover her address for himself? It would be the easiest of tasks,
since he had nothing to do but to put the question to Mrs Willoughby.
At one moment Claire openly hoped that he would; at the next she
recalled the expression on Janet Willoughby's face as she stood staring
across the supper room, and then she was not so sure. What if the
continuance of the friendship brought trouble on Janet as well as
herself?

Laboriously Claire thrust the thought of Erskine Fanshawe from her mind,
but just because inclination would have led her to so blithely meet him,
she felt a keener sympathy with her companion's preparations for similar
meetings.

The time of examinations had come, and