uite agree," I said, mildly, as I unwound my comforter, "that your
course of studies seems to suit you remarkably well. Quite a bevy of
female admirable CRICHT--!"

The effect was immediate; an unmistakable rush of lexicons--or were
they Todhunters?--hurtled around my devoted head from the fair hands
of disturbed and ruffled girlhood.

"Pray don't mention that person again!" said my fair-haired
interlocutor, and I thought I wouldn't.

"Well, but," I began, with heroic daring, as I laid aside my
respirator, "as to weak _chests_ now?"

I was interrupted by a paroxysm of coughing, which I tried to explain,
as my young friends thumped my back with unnecessary zeal, was, owing
to my having imprudently ventured out without my chest-protector. As
soon as I was able, I feebly hazarded the suggestion that, for growing
girls, the habit of stooping over their books seemed calculated to
induce weakness in the lungs--but their roars of merriment at the idea
instantly convinced me that any uneasiness on this score was entirely
superfluous.

"You certainly all look remarkably well," I observed, genially,
"particularly sunburnt and brow--"

Here there was a roar of quite another kind. I endeavoured to protest,
as I got behind an arm-chair and dodged a Differential Calculus and a
large glass inkstand, that I hadn't meant to allude to the obnoxious
Physician at all, but had merely intended to convey my hearty admir--

"I know what you're going to say!" interrupted the fair-haired girl,
vivaciously. "And you had better not."

As she spoke, she raised me from my seat by the coat-collar with no
apparent effort, and deposited me on the top of a tall bookcase, from
which I found myself compelled to prosecute my inquiries.

"Nature has been very bountiful to you--very much so, I am sure," I
murmured, blinking amiably down upon them through the spectacles
I wear to correct a slight tendency to strabismus. "Still, don't
you--er--find that your eyes--"

I got no further; I thought some of them would have died!

"How about the effect of learning on your _looks_, now?" I next
inquired. "Is it true that classical and mathematical pursuits are apt
to exercise a disfiguring effect? Not that, with such blooming faces
as I see around me--er--if you will allow me to say so--"

But they wouldn't; on the contrary, I was given to understand,
somewhat plainly, that compliments were perhaps ill-advised in that
gathering.

"Are you--hem--fond