regretted leaving
school before the end of the year. When the girls wrote about the
approaching Commencement and the good times they were having, and of how
they missed her, she thought how pleasant it would have been to have had
at least the one whole year with them. She was afraid she would be sorry
all the rest of her life that she had missed those experiences of
Commencement time. The exercises were always so beautiful at Warwick
Hall.

She could not wholly regret her return, however, when she saw how much
Jack depended on her for entertainment. He was ready to hear all about
her escapades at school now, and hours at a time she talked or read to
him, choosing with unerring instinct the tales best suited to his mood.
Phil kept them supplied with all the current magazines. Phil had been so
thoughtful about that, and his occasional letters to Jack had made
red-letter days on Mary's calendar. They had been almost as good as
visits, they were so charged with his jolly, light-hearted spirit.

But it happened, that the story she intended to read Jack first, _The
Jester's Sword_, still lay unopened on her table. She could not even
suggest his likeness to Aldebaran while he talked so hopefully of what
he intended to do as soon as he was out of bed. It was evident that he
did not realize the utter hopelessness of his condition, or he could not
have made such big plans for the future.

"Of course I appreciate your leaving school in the middle of the term,"
he told her. "It's good for mamma to have you here, and it's fine for
me, too, to have you look after me. But I'm sorry you were so badly
frightened that you thought it necessary. You'll have to pay up for this
holiday, Missy. I shall expect you to study all summer to make up lost
time, so that you can catch up with your class and enter Sophomore with
them next fall."

To please him she brought out her books and studied awhile every day,
reciting her French and Latin to her mother, and wrestling along with
the others as best she could. Then, too, it was impossible not to be
affected to some extent by his spirit of hopefulness, and several times
she gave herself up to the bliss of dreaming of the joyful thing it
would be, if he should prove to be right and she could go back to
Warwick Hall in the fall. Then, one day the surgeons came up from
Phoenix again and made their examination and experiments, and after
that the lessons and the day-dreams stopped. Everything stopped