ise the twinkle in her auditor's eye. But in the clear blue of
Milly Flaxman's quiet eyes, she had ceased to look for that tormenting
twinkle, that spark which seemed destined to dance about her from the
cradle to the grave.

Presently she found herself hanging up Milly's clothes while Milly paid
no attention; for she alternately stood before the glass in the dark
corner, and kneeled on the hearth-rug, curling-tongs in hand. And the
hair, the silky soft amber hair, which could be twisted into a tiny ball
or fluffed into a golden fleece at will, was being tossed up and pulled
down, combed here and brushed there, altogether handled with a zeal and
patience to which it had been a stranger since the days when it had been
the pride of the nursery. Tims the untidy, as one in a dream, went on
tidying the room she was accustomed to see so immaculate.

"There!" cried Milly, turning, "that's how I wear it, isn't it?"

"Good Lord, no!" exclaimed Tims, contemplating the transformed Milly.
"It suits you, M., in a way, but it looks queer too. The others will all
be hooting if you go down-stairs like that."

Milly plumped into a chair irritably.

"How ever am I to know how I did my hair if I can't remember? Please do
it for me."

Tims smiled sardonically.

"I'll lend you my hair," she said; "the second best. But _do_ your hair!
You really are as mad as a hatter."

Milly shrugged her shoulders.

"You can't? Then I keep it like this," she said.

An argument ensued. Tims left the room to try and find a photograph of
Milly as she had been.

When she returned she found her friend standing in absorbed
contemplation of a book in her hand.

"This is Greek, isn't it?" she asked, holding it up. Her face wore a
little frown as of strained attention.

"Right you are," shrieked Tims in accents of relief. "Greek it is. Can
you read it?"

"Not yet," replied Milly, flushing with excitement, "but I shall soon, I
know I shall. Last night I couldn't make head or tail of the books. Now
I understand right enough what they are, and I know some are in Greek
and some in English. I can't read either yet, but it's all coming back
gradually, like the daylight coming in at the window this morning."

"Hooray! Hooray!" shouted Tims. "You'll be reading as hard as ever in a
week if I don't look after you. But see here, my girl, you've given me a
nasty jar, and I'm not going to let you break your heart or crack your
brain in a wild-goose chase. You