d or gabled, the paladian pile of Queen's, the mediaeval
front of All Souls, with its single and perfect green tree, leading up
to the consummation of the great spire of St. Mary's.

Already, from the tall bulk of the nave, a shadow fell broad across the
pavement. But still the heat of the day reverberated from the stones
about them. They turned down to the Botanical Gardens and paced that
gray enclosure, full of the pride of branches and the glory of flowers
and overhung by the soaring vision of Magdalen Tower. Mildred was
walking fast and talking volubly about the Examination and everything
else.

"Look here, old girl," said Tims at last, when they reached for the
second time the seat under the willow trellis, "I'm going to sit down
here, unless you'll come to tea at Boffin's."

"I don't want to sit down," returned Mildred, seating herself; "or to
have tea or anything. I want to be just going, going, going. I feel as
though if I stop for a minute something horrid will happen."

Tims wrinkled her whole face anxiously.

"Don't do that, Tims," cried Mildred, sharply. "You look hideous."

Tims colored, rose and walked away. She suddenly thought, with tears in
her eyes, of the old Milly who would never have spoken to her like
that. By the time she had reached the little basin in the middle of the
garden, where the irises grew, Mildred had caught her up.

"Tims, dear old Tims! What a wretch I am! I couldn't help letting off
steam on something--you don't know what I feel like."

Tims allowed herself to be pacified, but in her heart there remained a
yearning for her earlier and gentler friend--that Milly Flaxman who was
certainly not dead, yet as certainly gone out of existence.

It was towards the end of the last week of Term, and the gayeties of
Commemoration had already begun. Mildred threw herself into them with
feverish enjoyment. She seemed to grudge even the hours that must be
lost in the unconsciousness of sleep. The Iretons, cousins from India,
who had never known the former Milly, took a house in Oxford for a week.
She went with them to three College balls and a Masonic, and spent the
days in a carnival of luncheon and boating-parties. She attracted plenty
of admiration, and enjoyed herself wildly, yet also purposefully;
because she was trying to get rid of that haunting feeling that if she
stopped a minute "something horrid would happen."

Stewart meantime was finding love not so entirely beautiful and
d