"Emerson! Heavens, no! He's as deep as the sea. Ask me something easy, Blue Bonnet. My grey matter's at your disposal--what's left of it. I think I've overtaxed it with my own theme. Do you know anything about hypnotism?" "Hypnotism! I should say not. Look out! Fraulein's weather eye is turned this way. "I think it's the tea we're going to this afternoon that's distracting me," Blue Bonnet confessed, when Fraulein had removed the weather eye. "I can't seem to get it out of my mind. I know we're going to have a perfectly wonderful time. I wish you were going, Wee." "Yes--it would be lovely. I suppose Annabel has borrowed everything in sight. I've given her my Egyptian bracelet and my jade ring. Don't let her have your furs to-day. You look so pretty in them yourself." "Oh, she doesn't want them," Blue Bonnet answered loyally. "I think she's going to get Angela's. They are white fox--almost like mine. Oh, bother! What on earth is 'compensation,' anyway? I've read this essay ten times and it's perfect Greek to me. Don't you know, Wee, really? This thing has got to be handed in in twenty minutes." Wee searched through her desk for a dictionary. "Look it up," she suggested, turning to the C's. "Sometimes you can get a start that way." Blue Bonnet gathered up dictionary and papers and moved to a vacant seat. "Thank you so much, Wee," she whispered in passing, "I've got to sit alone where I can think. You're _nice_, but you're _too_ entertaining." Again she plunged into her subject and for a few minutes worked diligently. A white scrap of paper rolled in a ball falling at her feet distracted her attention. She dropped her handkerchief over it in obedience to a slight cough from Sue Hemphill, and drew it into her lap. A second later it lay open in her book. "Annabel's changed her mind," it read. "She's not going to wear her suit. She thinks she'll wear her new crepe de chine and borrow Patty's fur coat. Don't you think that will make us look out of place in just waists and suits? Answer." Blue Bonnet crumpled the note in her hand and looked at the clock anxiously. She didn't give a rap what Annabel wore. It was half past one, and she had but three paragraphs written on her theme. She read them through again. They were utterly impossible. She tore the paper into bits and carried the pieces to the waste basket. Going back to the seat with Wee Watts she put her books in order and awaited the ringing of the gong which signaled the beginning of the next period. It was unfortunate--for Blue Bonnet at least--that something had happened to disturb Professor Howe's usual calmness of manner. She was irritated. Blue Bonnet felt it in the atmosphere the moment she entered the recitation-room. "We will begin with Miss Ashe," she said, busying herself with some papers on her desk. "You may read what you have prepared on the Emerson work, Miss Ashe. Come to the front of the room, please."