the mood of the hearer; but, whatever be his mood, he yet knows in his
heart that it is a transitory phase, and an almost inevitable result of
theoretical knowledge. A few years of personal grip with life and its
problems will make short work of that over-confidence, and replace it
with a gentler, sweeter touch.

But to-night was a night of frolic, and one would have to travel far
indeed to find a more amusing spectacle than an impromptu costume dance
in Clough Hall. Beauty is a secondary consideration, and the girl who
has achieved the oddest and most ludicrous appearance is the heroine of
the hour. Darsie Garnett made a fascinating Alice in Wonderland in her
short blue frock, white pinny, and little ankle-strap slippers, her hair
fastened back by an old-fashioned round comb, and eyebrows painted into
an inquiring arch, but she received no attention in comparison with that
lavished upon Hannah, when she dashed nimbly in at the door, and,
kneeling down in a corner of the room, presented a really lifelike
appearance of a pillar-box, a white label bearing the hours of
"Chocolate deliveries" pasted conspicuously beneath the slit. Hannah's
prophecies proved correct, for it became one of the amusements of the
evening to feed that yawning cavity with chocolates and other dainties,
so that more than one sweet tooth in the assembly made a note of the
suggestion for a future day.

The Dutch Doll was another huge success; for so dolly and so beyond all
things Dutch did she appear, standing within the doorway with jointed
arms and rigid back, with dark hair plastered over the forehead in the
well-known curve, and the three little spots of colour blazing out from
the whitened background, that it was almost impossible to believe that
she was living flesh and blood. Like a statue she stood until the
laughter and applause had lasted for several minutes, and then, stepping
jerkily on one side, made way for a new and even more startling
apparition.

Topsy, by all that was wonderful and unexpected! A beaming, grinning
little nigger girl, with tightly curled hair, rolling eyes, and white
teeth showing to the gums. A short gown of brilliantly striped cotton
reached to the knees, brown-stockinged arms and legs were matched by
brown-painted face and neck; standing side by side with the Dutch Doll,
the respective whiteness and brownness became accentuated to a
positively dazzling extent, and the onlookers were jubilant with
delight