She walked up to a calendar that hung on the wall, and carefully counted the days till the second week in August. Then she sighed regretfully. "Poor little Lucy," she said, "what an unsympathetic brute she must have thought me!" CHAPTER XLIX. THE INTERMEDIATE. The classic precincts of Burlington House were once more invaded by a motley crowd of nervous, excited young men, who hung about the steps and entrance-hall, poring over their note-books, exchanging "tips," or coolly discussing the points of the women. "None of them are so good-looking as the little girl with the red hair, who was up last year," Mona overheard one of them say, and she made a mental note to inform Lucy of her conquest. About half-a-dozen girls were already assembled in the cloak-room when she entered. "Well, Miss Maclean, how are you feeling?" "Hardened," said Mona, taking off her hat, but she did not look particularly hardened. "'In my heart if calm at all If any calm, a calm despair,'" quoted Miss Lascelles. "Do tell me about the cardiac branches of the pneumo-gastric," said some one. Miss Lascelles proceeded to give the desired information, while the others discussed the never-settled question of the number of marks required for a pass. "It seems to me that _x_ equals the most you can make plus one," and Mona sighed resignedly. "Now, ladies, please," said an imposing individual in broadcloth, and the little party was marshalled through the hall to the examination-room. "Why has Miss Maclean done her hair like that?" said a student with a mind at leisure from itself. "It is not half so becoming as the old way." Nor was it. Mona had made the alteration in order to change the outline of her head as much as possible, for she was most anxious that Dr Dudley should not recognise her, in surroundings that did not admit of an explanation on her part. She did not venture to raise her eyes as she entered the room, and as soon as she was seated, she bent low over the pink and green cahiers that lay on her desk. A minute later the examination papers were distributed, and for three hours neither Dudley nor any other human being had any existence for her. She wrote on till the last moment--wrote on, in fact, till the examiner, Dudley's "monument of erudition," came up and claimed her paper. "I think I have seen you before," he said kindly. "Twice," said Mona smiling, "and I am afraid you are in a fair way to see me again." He looked at her with some amusement and interest in his shrewd Scotch face. "I don't think you are much afraid of that," he said.