so old as all that, and I have not much to do while you are
out all day,' declared Mrs. Morrison, putting down the scones on the
tripod in front of the fire and going out of the room.

'All the same, I call it rather cool of them making nursie run up and
down stairs for them,' objected Vava.

'I expect they were wet through and had to change, and that nursie took
the tea up without being asked,' suggested Stella.

'They'd be much more comfortable down here by the fire, I should think,
than in their cold rooms,' observed Vava.

'Perhaps they have gone to bed,' said Stella.

Vava listened for a moment. 'No, they haven't; I can hear them moving
above us, and--they have a fire in Amy's room; I can hear them poking
it! What extravagance!' she continued.

Stella was privately of the same opinion, and she wondered at the
housekeeper encouraging it. Moreover, it meant more work; but she would
not criticise their house-mates any more, and changed the conversation.
Soon after, Vava set to work at her books, reading over the term's work
for the examination on the following day, and Stella decided to go up
and see if Amy had caught a chill, or had any such reason for staying
upstairs, or whether it was only laziness.

There was dead silence when she knocked at the door, and then a murmured
conversation before Amy unlocked the door, and said, 'Come in, Stella.
Eva has a headache, so Mrs. Morrison very kindly insisted on her lying
down on my bed and having a fire.'

It did occur to Stella as strange that Eva should lie upon Amy's bed and
have the fire in her room; but as Eva had her back turned to her she
thought the kindest thing she could do would be to leave her alone, so
she said, 'I am so sorry Eva is ill. Mrs. Morrison did not tell me that,
or I would not have come and disturbed you.'

'I'm not ill.--You'd better tell her about it, Amy; she'll have to know
sooner or later,' said Eva from the bed in a muffled voice.

Stella looked with concern from one to the other. 'I hope there is
nothing wrong?' she asked.

Amy made a sign to her to come out of the room, and they went downstairs
to the little sitting-room before the former said anything, and even
when they were sitting down in the two easy-chairs, which the good old
housekeeper had drawn up to the fire, she did not seem inclined to
begin.

At last Stella said, 'Tell me what is wrong, Amy--a trouble shared is a
trouble halved. I suppose it has something to do wi