If she could have had a glimpse of her during that tragic period it is certain that Rhoda's term at "Hurst" would have been short indeed: but she was not informed of the accident, while each letter showed an increasing interest in work and play. Rhoda had put her back into her studies, and worked with an almost feverish earnestness. The hours of preparation were all too short, but she found a dozen ways of adding to their length, so that from morning to night her brain was never allowed to rest. She grew white and tired, and so perceptibly thin that Miss Bruce questioned her class-mistress as to the change in her appearance. "She is an ambitious girl," was the reply, "and does not like to feel behind. She is working hard, and making progress; but she never complains, or appears to feel ill." "Oh, well, everything in moderation. See that she is not overworked. There will be no time gained in that way," said the principal, and forthwith banished the subject from her busy brain. There came a day, however, half way through the term, when Rhoda collapsed, and found it impossible to rise from her bed. Three times over she made the effort, and three times sank back upon her pillow faint and trembling, and then in despair she raised her voice, and wailed a feeble "Tom!" Tom came promptly, buttoning her magenta jacket, and went through a most professional examination. "To the best of my judgment," she announced finally, "you are sickening for scarlatina, tonsilitis, and housemaid's knee, but if you stay in bed and have an invalid's breakfast I should say you would be fairly convalescent by twelve o'clock. Snoddle down, and I'll see Nurse as soon as I'm dressed, and put her on the track." "I want Miss Everett!" sighed Rhoda plaintively, and Tom gave a grunt of assent. "I expect you do. All the girls want her when they are ill. She's no time to spare, but I'll tell her, and probably she'll squeeze in five minutes for you after breakfast. You are not going to die this time, my dear, so don't lose heart. We shall see your fairy form among us before many hours are past!" Perhaps so. Nevertheless it _was_ good to be coddled once more, to lie snugly in bed and have a tray brought up with a teapot for one's very own self, and egg, and fish, and toast--actually toast! instead of thick slices of bread-and-scrape. The luxury of it took away one's breath. It was pleasant, also, to have Nurse fussing around in motherly fashion, and hear her reminiscences of other young ladies whom she had nursed, in days gone by, and brought back from the jaws of death. From her manner, it is true, she did not appear to suffer any keen anxiety about her present patient: but, as Rhoda looked at the empty dishes before her, she blushingly acknowledged that, after all, she could not have been so ill as she had imagined.