on't
believe it's good for people to coddle themselves and worry all the time
for feah they are going to be ill."

"Oh," answered the nurse, "I fully agree with you in that, still I
should not be doing my duty if I did not put up a warning signal when I
see danger ahead. I do see it now. You are getting on very nicely, but
the ice is very thin,--far too thin for any such extra weights as double
study hours and holiday dissipations. If you don't walk lightly,
there'll be a nervous breakdown."

Some one called Miss Gilmer away before she could finish her warning,
and Lloyd sat facing the fire and this unpleasant bit of counsel for
nearly half an hour. A verse from her favourite carol came echoing
through the halls from the distant music-room, for it was practice hour
again, but this time it did not fit her mood, and it brought no cheer.
It was all well enough for those girls up-stairs, happy and well and
able to do as they pleased, to be singing "Let _nothing_ you dismay,"
but she couldn't help being dismayed at Miss Gilmer's opinion of her
condition. She was ready to cry, thinking how all her holidays would be
spoiled should she follow the nurse's advice.

With her chin in her hand and her elbow on the arm of the chair, she sat
picturing her doleful Christmas if she could have no part in the giving,
and must be left out of all the merrymaking they had planned. Tears
welled up into her eyes, and her miserable reverie might have ended in a
downpour had it not been interrupted by the entrance of Gay and Betty.
Having taken a hasty run across the terraces, they had obtained
permission to spend the rest of the recreation hour with Lloyd.

"We can't waste a minute now," exclaimed Gay, as she pulled out her
knitting-work and began clicking her ivory needles through a rainbow
shawl she was making. "I believe Betty sleeps with her embroidery hoops
under her pillow, and I know that Allison paints in her sleep."

"What would you do if you were in my place?" mourned Lloyd. She repeated
the nurse's dismal warning.

"Boo! She magnifies her office," said Gay, glancing over her shoulder to
make sure that they were alone. "I suppose it is perfectly natural that
she should. When you're with Miss White, she makes you feel that there's
nothing in life to live for but Latin. When you're with Miss Hooker,
mathematics is the chief end of man. With Professor Stroebel the violin
is the one and only. So of course a professional nurse is in