Here there was a roar of quite another kind. I endeavoured to protest, as I got behind an arm-chair and dodged a Differential Calculus and a large glass inkstand, that I hadn't meant to allude to the obnoxious Physician at all, but had merely intended to convey my hearty admir-- "I know what you're going to say!" interrupted the fair-haired girl, vivaciously. "And you had better not." As she spoke, she raised me from my seat by the coat-collar with no apparent effort, and deposited me on the top of a tall bookcase, from which I found myself compelled to prosecute my inquiries. "Nature has been very bountiful to you--very much so, I am sure," I murmured, blinking amiably down upon them through the spectacles I wear to correct a slight tendency to strabismus. "Still, don't you--er--find that your eyes--" I got no further; I thought some of them would have died! "How about the effect of learning on your _looks_, now?" I next inquired. "Is it true that classical and mathematical pursuits are apt to exercise a disfiguring effect? Not that, with such blooming faces as I see around me--er--if you will allow me to say so--" But they wouldn't; on the contrary, I was given to understand, somewhat plainly, that compliments were perhaps ill-advised in that gathering. "Are you--hem--fond of athletics?" was the question I put next from my lofty perch. "Do you go in for _games_ at all, now?" "Of course we do!" said the fair-haired girl, affording a practical demonstration of the fact by taking me down and proceeding with her lively companions to engage in the old classical game of _pila_ or [Greek: sphairistikae], the recreation in which Ulysses long ago found Nausicaa engaged with her maidens. On this occasion, however, _I_ represented the _pila_, or ball, and although, in justice to their accuracy of eye and hand, I am bound to admit that I was seldom allowed to touch the ground as I sped swiftly from one to the other, still I felt considerable relief when, on my urgent protestations that I was fully convinced of their proficiency in this amusement, they were prevailed upon to bring this pastime to a close. "We are breaking the rule of silence in this room," said the fair-haired one. "And you _do_ ask such a lot of questions! But, as you seem curious about our athletic pursuits, come and I will try to show you." I crawled after my guide without a word, inwardly reflecting that I was sorry I had spoken, and heartily cursing (though without pronouncing it aloud) the very name of that eminent Physician, Dr. CRICHTON BROWNE. She took me first of all to a field where a bevy of maidens were engaged in a game of hockey.