“Good-night, Mr. Policeman,” said she, pretending to bawl to him. “And oh! Do rain! As hard as ever you can.” With this benevolent aspiration, a little too violent to be sincere, she laid her cheek on her pillow doughtily. But her sentinel, when out of sight, had more power to disturb her. She lay and wondered whether he was still there, and what it all meant, and whatever mamma would say; and which of the two, she or he, was the head culprit in this strange performance, to which Earth, she conceived, had seen no parallel; and, above all, what he would do next. Her pulse galloped, and her sleep was broken; and she came down in the morning a little pale. Mrs. Dodd saw it at once, with the quick maternal eye; and moralised: “It is curious; youth is so fond of pleasure; yet pleasure seldom agrees with youth; this little excitement has done your mother good, who is no longer young; but it has been too much for you. I shall be glad to have you back to our quiet home.” Ah! Will that home be as tranquil now? CHAPTER III THE long vacation commenced about a month afterwards, and Hardie came to his father's house, to read for honours, unimpeded by university races and college lectures; and the ploughed and penitent one packed up his Aldrich and his Whately, the then authorities in Logic, and brought them home, together with a firm resolution to master that joyous science before the next examination for Smalls in October. But lo! ere he had been an hour at home, he found his things put neatly away in his drawers on the feminine or vertical system--deep strata of waistcoats, strata of trousers, strata of coats, strata of papers--and his Logic gone. In the course of the evening he taxed his sister good-humouredly, and asked “What earthly use that book was to her, not wearing curls.” “I intend to read it, and study it, and teach you it,” replied Julia, rather languidly--considering the weight of the resolve. “Oh, if you have boned it to read, I say no more; the crime will punish itself.” “Be serious, Edward, and think of mamma! I cannot sit with my hands before me, and let you be reploughed.” “I don't want. But--reploughed!--haw, haw! but you can't help me at Logic, as you used at Syntax. Why, all the world knows a girl can't learn Logic.” “A girl can learn anything she chooses to learn. What she can't learn is things other people set her down to.” Before Edward could fully digest this revelation, she gave the argument a new turn by adding fretfully, “And don't be so unkind, thwarting and teasing me!” and all in a moment she was crying. “Halloa!” ejaculated Edward, taken quite by surprise. “What is the matter, dears?” inquired maternal vigilance from the other end of the room. “You did not speak brusquely to her, Edward?” “No, no,” said Julia eagerly. “It is I that am turned so cross and so peevish. I am quite a changed girl. Mamma, what _is_ the matter with me?” And she laid her brow on her mother's bosom.