ing case of breakdown from undue mental exertion.
The doctor had declared his astonishment that she held up until the
examination was over.

'He simply wouldn't believe me when I told him the hours I worked. He
said I ought to be on my trial for attempted suicide!'

And she laughed with extravagant conceit.

'You have quite made friends with the Barmbys,' said Nancy, eyeing her
curiously.

'They are very nice people. Of course the girls quite understand what a
difference there is between themselves and me. I like them because they
are so modest; they would never think of contradicting my opinion about
anything.'

'And what about the Prophet?'

'I don't think you ever quite understood him,' Jessica replied, with an
obvious confusion which perplexed her friend. 'He isn't at all the kind
of man you thought.'

'No doubt I was wrong,' Nancy hastened to say. 'It was prejudice.
And you remember that I never had any fault to find with his--his
character.'

'You disliked him,' said the other sharply. 'And you still dislike him.
I'm sure you do.'

So plainly did Jessica desire a confirmation of this statement, that
Nancy allowed herself to be drawn into half avowing a positive dislike
for Samuel. Whereupon Jessica looked pleased, and tossed her head in a
singular way.

'I needn't remind you,' fell from Nancy, after a moment of troubled
reflection, 'how careful you must be in talking about me to the
Barmbys.'

'Oh, don't have the slightest fear.'

'Weren't you delirious in your illness?'

'I should think I was indeed! For a long time.'

'I hope you said nothing--'

'About you? Oh, not a word; I'm quite sure. I talked all the time about
my studies. The doctor heard me one day repeating a long bit of Virgil.
And I kept calling for bits of paper to work out problems in Geometrical
Progression. Just fancy! I don't think most girls are delirious in that
way. If I had said anything about you that sounded queer, of course
mother would have told me afterwards. Oh, it was quite an intellectual
delirium.'

Had Jessica, since her illness, become an insufferable simpleton?
or--Nancy wondered--was it she herself who, through experience and
sorrows, was grown wiser, and saw her friend in a new light? It troubled
her gravely that the preservation of a secret more than ever momentous
should depend upon a person with so little sense. The girl's departure
was a relief; but in the silence that followed upon silly talk, she had