y mistress, however
conscientious, to give to forty different pupils the same care and
attention as they would receive at home. I am sure Mrs. Marshall
thought she took every precaution to secure our health, and if I had
been definitely ill or in pain she would have been kindness itself; but
it is so difficult sometimes to tell whether a girl is really ailing or
only shirking her work, that unless we complained of special symptoms no
notice was taken of our general condition, so my pale cheeks and
increased lassitude passed without comment. I felt the meaning of the
old adage: "A sound mind in a sound body". I found myself worrying most
absurdly over trifles which would not have distressed me to nearly such
an extent if I had been able to distract my thoughts. After all, school
is one's little world, and a bad mark, an unjust reproof, or a quarrel
with a companion at the time, seem as overwhelming troubles as any we
may encounter in after-life.

Matters went on from bad to worse. In my struggles to keep up to the
standard of my class I began the foolish habit of smuggling my books
into my bedroom, that I might take a last glance at my lessons before I
got into bed, and I would lie repeating French verbs or German
grammatical rules to myself long after the gas in the passage had been
turned out. It was but a natural consequence that I could not sleep.
Night after night I have tossed and turned, trying first one side of my
pillow and then the other to cool my burning head, counting the strokes
as the clock struck midnight, and feeling as if the dead silence of the
house grew almost unbearable. There is perhaps nothing so lonely as to
lie awake while others sleep; the darkness of the room oppressed me, it
was terrible to open my eyes and see nothing but blackness around me,
out of which my imagination would conjure up ghostly figures stealing
around my bed. Had I dared I would have begged for a night-light, but I
knew full well that such fancies would meet with scant sympathy at Miss
Percy's ears. The sound of Cathy's quiet breathing made me feel as
though she were miles away, but I was not selfish enough to wake her up
to console me in my misery, and after tossing about for hours I would at
last fall asleep, to find the unwelcome bell ringing in my ears before I
seemed out of my first troubled dream.

I woke up one morning, after a restless night such as this, feeling limp
and irritable, and very unable to cope with the