idioms and inversions it contained, totally failed to
comprehend its meaning. Indeed, she could see from the significant
glances which--talking being forbidden--were exchanged between the
girls, that she was not the only one who failed to appreciate the
beauty, or even the sense of the poem.

"It's of no use," she sighed; "I must leave it and answer some
questions. If I have time afterwards, I may, perhaps, do one verse."

For a whole hour there was not a sound to be heard but the scratching of
busy pens and the rustling of papers or the tapping of idle fingers,
waiting to put down the thoughts that would not come.

Julia was writing very fast. She was more proficient in French than in
any other study. She liked it, and easily caught the sounds, and was
very proud of the fact that she had once spent a few days in Paris with
her mother. She had also profited by her friendship with a French girl,
one of Miss Elgin's boarders, who had come to the place quite unable to
speak English. Julia had taken a fancy to mademoiselle, and in
conversation with her picked up several unusual phrases, and became
familiar with many of the idioms, though her knowledge of the grammar
was still very meagre.

The poem which perplexed the other girls was less difficult to her than
the grammatical questions, and she wrote away busily translating it. She
was seated at a desk just in front of Ruth, who looked up after writing
her answers, wondering what she could do about the poem. The time
allowed for the paper was drawing to a close. Julia had finished her
translation, and was holding it in her hand, reading it over to see if
it required any correction. Her writing was large, firm, and clear, and
as she held up the paper Ruth's eye fell upon it, and, almost
unconsciously, she read the whole of her cousin's translation.

The meaning of the poem was no longer a mystery to her. She understood
it now, and could easily translate it.

Without stopping to think if it were right or wrong, she seized her pen
and wrote the words as they came to her mind. Naturally enough they were
almost identical with those she had read on her cousin's paper. But she
did not stop to think, and had scarcely finished the last word when the
clock struck, and the papers were immediately collected, Ruth's not
having been even read over.

"How many questions did you answer?" "What have you done?" "How _did_
you get on with that dreadful translation?" asked the girls of