A
marked disinclination for the prescribed routine of classroom and study
hall appears to be one of its most pronounced manifestations. I am
strangely distraught; preoccupied with truant and wandering thoughts
having no bearing upon the task in hand.

Seeking to throw off these distractions, I quite casually dropped into
the gymnasium. It was empty. Upon finding it so, a small sense of
disappointment beset me. I then went for a walk, trusting to the soft
and gentle influences of out-of-doors to dispel the meaningless
vapourings which beset my consciousness. My wandering feet automatically
carried me to Locust Lane, where for some time I lingered in idleness.

The class in horseback riding did not pass, as once before. Presumably
our young equestriennes, if abroad, had taken some other direction. In
pensive thought not untinctured with a fleeting depression, I returned
at dusk, hoping with books to cure myself of the bewilderments of this
day.

An hour agone I took up a volume of Tasso. Than Tasso in the original
Latin, I know of no writer whose works are better fitted for perusal
during an hour of relaxation. But Tasso was dull to-night. The printed
page was before my eyes, but my thoughts sped off in tangents to dwell
upon the birds, the trees, the flowers. The thought of flowers
suggested my botanical collection and to it I turned. But it, too, had
lost its zest.

It must be that this mental preoccupation has a physical side. Beyond
peradventure the lassitude of spring is upon me. I shall take a tonic
compounded according to a formula popular for many generations in my
family and much favoured by my sole surviving relative, Great-Aunt
Paulina, now residing at an advanced age, but with faculties unimpaired,
in the city of Hartford, Connecticut. Haply I have a bottle of this
sovereign concoction by me, Great-Aunt Paulina having sent it by parcel
post no longer ago than last week. I shall take it as designated by her
in the letter accompanying the timely gift--a large dessert-spoonful
three times daily before meals.

* * * * *

APRIL THE TWENTY-FIRST.--Have been taking my tonic regularly but
apparently without deriving beneficial results. Its especial purpose is
for the thinning of the blood. Assuredly though, if my blood has been
appreciably thinned my mental attitude remains unchanged. Perversely I
continue to be the subject of contradictory and conflicting moods
impossible to und