"Ay, especially when one has to find time for so many other things as well." "Yes. I feel that intensely. I hate to be insulated. I must touch at more points than one. But I do try to work conscientiously, or rather I don't try. It is my nature. Study is a pure delight to me." "I expect you will be taking honours in all four subjects." "I find it a great help in any case to do the honours work: it is so much more practical and useful; but it does take a lot of time. I find it impossible to work more than ten hours a day----" Mona laid down the fish-slice in horror. "Ten hours a day!" she exclaimed. "Yes; I tried twelve, but I could not keep it up." "I should hope not. I call eight hours spurting. I only read for six, as a rule, and for the last fortnight before an examination, only two." "Why?" "I can't read at the end. That is the ruin of me. Up to the last fortnight, I seem to know more than most of my fellow-students; but then I collapse, while they--they withdraw into private life. What mystic rites and incantations go on there I can't even divine; but they emerge all armed _cap-à-pie_, conquering and to conquer, while I crawl out from my lethargy to fail." "You have the consolation of knowing that you really know your work better than they." "Do you know, I have had nearly enough of that kind of consolation? I could make shift now to do with an inferior, more tangible kind." "You will get that too this time." Mona sighed. "_How_ I hope so!" she said. "Have some more Chablis, and let us drink to our joint success." "I confess I was rather surprised that Miss Reynolds passed. I am not given to meddling in other people's affairs; but if Miss Reynolds is ever to take her degree at all, it was quite time you came back. Have you seen her yet?" "Only for a few minutes. She is coming to spend the evening with me." "You know she used to hide a capacity for very earnest work behind an aggravatingly frivolous exterior. Now it is just the other way. She professes to be in earnest, but I am sure she is doing nothing. You will wonder how I know, when I am not at hospital; but quite a number of the students have spoken of it. She never read widely. The secret of her success was that she took good notes of the lectures, and then got them up. But now they say she is taking no notes at all, scarcely. It was very much against her, of course, coming in in the middle of term; but one would have predicted that that would only have made her work the harder." "I don't think so. That is not what I should have predicted. She really worked too hard last summer, and a thorough reaction is a good sign. I think that is quite sufficient to account for what you say. Miss Reynolds is a healthy animal, and one may depend upon her instincts to be pretty correct. She will accomplish all the more in the end, for letting her mind lie fallow this year."