've forgotten everything. One always does in the
holidays, doesn't one? Such a bore having to grind through it all
again. Seems such a waste of time."

"Have you a bad memory? Miss Drake, our English governess, is
especially clever at developing the powers of memory. And holiday tasks
are so useful, too; don't you find them so? It is impossible to forget,
if one has to study for an elaborate thesis."

"The--what?" questioned Dreda blankly. "But whoever _does_ study in the
holidays? I don't! If you did, they wouldn't be holidays. So stupid!
Holidays are for rest and fun. Bad enough to have lessons for two-
thirds of the year. One's brain must have _some_ rest!"

She ended on quite an indignant note, and her companions stared at her
with a mingling of admiration and dismay. Such a vivid bit of colouring
had not been seen for many a long day in that neutral-tinted room.
Yellow hair, pink cheeks, red lips, blue dress--she was positively
dazzling to behold. The two younger Miss Websters appeared absorbed in
admiration, but the eldest and cleverest-looking of the three pursed up
her lips with an air of disapproval and said primly:

"It depends upon one's _idea_ of rest, doesn't it? Leisure may mean
only a time of amusement, but it's a rather poor conception of the word.
The ancient Greeks understood by it a time of _congenial_ work, as
distinguished from work which they were obliged to do. Their necessary
work was undertaken in order that they might obtain a time of leisure,
but when it came, instead of wasting it in foolish and passing
amusement, they used it to strengthen their intellect and to store up
ennobling thoughts."

"How did they do that, pray?" Dreda put the question with the air of
one launching a poser, but Mary Webster showed no signs of discomfiture.

"They used to meet together in little companies, and discuss the deepest
and most important topics of the day--"

"I expect they gossiped horribly!"

"And they watched the dramas--"

"I call that amusement! I wouldn't mind doing that myself."

"But the Greek dramas were not light and vapid like modern plays. They
dealt with serious subjects, and the audience often used to commit the
words to memory as a mental exercise."

Dreda yawned.

"Ah, well," she conceded indulgently, "it's a long while ago! One
mustn't be hard on them, poor dears, for they knew no better. I don't
approve of girls bothering their heads about ancient Greeks