It is no good
telling me to command my feelings; I am sure I would if I could, for
the girls are more detestable than ever; but what can one do when one
cannot sleep nor eat? All the screaming and crying has got into one
bump in my throat, because I can't get it out in peace. If I could
only shy the inkstand at the English teacher's head! or get one moment
alone and out of sight! Let me come home. I could at least run
messages; and it is of no use for me to stay here, for I can't learn,
and all the girls are looking at me. If they were but boys, they would
have sense! or if I could but kick them! This will make you angry, but
do forgive me; I can't help it, for I am so very unhappy. Louis is as
much to me as you are, and no one ever was so kind; but I know he will
get well--I know he will; only if I knew the pain was better, and could
but hear every minute. You need not come to fetch me; only send me a
telegraph, and one to Miss Brigham. I have money enough for a
second-class ticket, and would come that instant. If you saw the eyes
and heard the whispers of these girls, I am sure you would. I should
laugh at such nonsense any other time, but now I only ask to be
wretched quietly in a corner.

'Your affectionate, nearly crazy, sister,
'CLARA FROST DYNEVOR.'

Mary might well say that there was nothing more expedient than going to
see Clara, and 'much,' said poor James, 'he should gain by that,'
especially on the head that made him most uneasy, and on which he could
only hint lightly--namely, whether the girls were 'putting nonsense in
her head.'

'If they had done her any harm, she would never have written such a
letter,' said Mary.

'True,' said Jem. 'She is a mere child, and never got that notion into
her head for a moment; but if they put it in, we are done for! Or if
the place were ever so bad, I can't remove her now, when granny is thus
occupied. One reason why I made a point of her going to school was,
that I thought doing everything that Fitzjocelyn did was no preparation
for being a governess.'

'Oh! I hope it will not come to that! Mr. Oliver Dynevor talks of
coming home in a very few years.'

'So few, that we shall be grey before he comes. No; Clara and I are
not going to be bound to him for the wealth heaped up while my
grandmother was left in poverty. We mean to be independent.'

Mary was glad to revert to Clara.

'I must do the