--I must to work!"

Darsie descended to Hannah's study and proposed the idea of the Mad
Hatter, the which was instantly and scornfully declined. Hannah
explained at length that though her head might be plain, it yet
contained more brains than other heads she could mention, and that to
play the part of idiot for a whole night long was a feat beyond the
powers of a mathematical student reading for honours. She then
explained with a dignity which seemed somewhat misplaced that she had
set her heart upon representing a pillar-box, and was even now on the
point of sallying forth to purchase a trio of hat-boxes, which, being of
fashionable dimensions, would comfortably encircle her body. Fastened
together so as to form a tube, covered with red sateen, and supported by
scarlet-stockinged legs, the effect would be pleasingly true to life.

"I'll have peep-holes for eyes, and the slit will outline my mouth.
Between the dances I'll kneel down in a corner so that the box touches
the ground, and I'll look so real, that I shall expect every one to drop
in _letters--chocolate_ letters, observe! You might buy some and set
the example!"

For the next twenty-four hours an unusual air of excitement and bustle
pervaded the college, and the conversation at mealtime consisted for the
most part of fragmentary questions and answers bearing on the important
subject of costumes in making.

"Lend me your boot brushes, like a lamb!"

"Got an old pair of brown stockings you can't wear again?"

"Be an angel and lend me your striped curtains just for the night!"

"Spare _just_ ten minutes to sew up my back?"

So on it went, and in truth it was a pleasant chance to hear the merry,
inconsequent chatter; for, like every other class of the community, girl
students have their besetting sins, and one of the most obvious of these
is an air of assurance, of dogmatism, of final knowledge of life,
against which there can be no appeal. Girls of nineteen and twenty will
settle a dispute of ages with a casual word; students of economy will
advance original schemes warranted to wipe the offence of poverty from
the globe; science students with unlowered voices will indulge across
the dinner-table in scathing criticisms on historic creeds which their
fathers hold in reverence; and on each young face, on each young tongue,
can be read the same story of certainty and self-esteem.

This state of mind is either sad, amusing, or exasperating, according to