Never very robust I worked far
beyond my strength, and the continual strain began at last to tell upon
my health. I grew thin and pale, I was troubled with a perpetual
headache, and I sometimes indulged in unreasonable fits of crying, which
incurred the severe reproof of Miss Percy, who had no sympathy with
"nerves".

"I can't help it--I can't, indeed!" I confided to Cathy after one of
these outbreaks. "My head feels so chock full of facts I sometimes think
it won't hold any more. When I look at my book the letters seem to dance
before my eyes, and I mix up mathematics with history and want to talk
German in the French class."

"Tell Mrs. Marshall, and ask her to knock something off," suggested
Cathy.

"No, no! She would only say the class was too difficult for me, and send
me down, and unless I can stay up here with you and Janet life simply
isn't worth living. Never mind, I'll manage to worry on somehow, if only
Miss Percy would let me alone!"

Unfortunately that was exactly what Miss Percy would not do. She had
taken it into her head that I was hysterical, and that my whims and
fancies must not on any account be humoured. I dare say she thought she
was only doing her duty, but she harried me continually. An untied
hair-ribbon, a blot on my exercise, an ink-stain on my finger, or an
awkward attitude in class, were occasions for instant and severe
fault-finding. No doubt they were all little defects which called for
amendment, but she made the mistake of dealing with them too hardly. I
believe, if people would only realize it, that overwork and ill-health
are often responsible for many tiresome habits in growing girls. It was
certainly so in my case; I sat crooked because my back ached, I lolled
on my desk because I was really tired, I fidgeted from sheer nervousness
when I felt Miss Percy's eye upon me, and when, having brought down all
the vials of her wrath upon my head, I ended by bursting into tears, it
was hard to be accused of temper or sullenness when I felt I would have
given the whole world for a kind word.

I think we all suffered much from the deadly sameness of our life. In
the summer-time we were allowed a considerable amount of leisure, which
we spent in the garden at croquet, tennis, or archery, but during the
winter months the play hours were greatly curtailed and extra classes
added, while the only exercise we took was a short daily "crocodile"
walk, with hockey for an hour on Wednesdays and Sa