"Very well, thank you. It was something of a cram, but I think I know that grammar by heart, from the preface to the index." "You're back in all your other work. Do you think it paid?" "That remains to be seen," laughed Patty. She knocked on Miss Skelling's door, and, after the first polite greetings, stated her errand: "I should like, if it is convenient for you, to take the examination I missed." "Do you feel able to take it to-day?" "I feel much better able to take it to-day than I did on Tuesday." Miss Skelling smiled kindly. "You have done very good work in Old English this semester, Miss Wyatt, and I should not ask you to take the examination at all if I thought it would be fair to the rest of the class." "Fair to the rest of the class?" Patty looked a trifle blank; she had not considered this aspect of the question, and a slow red flush crept over her face. She hesitated a moment, and rose uncertainly. "When it comes to that, Miss Skelling," she confessed, "I'm afraid it wouldn't be quite fair to the rest of the class for me to take it." Miss Skelling did not understand. "But, Miss Wyatt," she expostulated in a puzzled tone, "it was not difficult. I am sure you could pass." Patty smiled. "I am sure I could, Miss Skelling. I don't believe you could ask me a question that I couldn't answer. But the point is that it's all learned since Tuesday. The doctor was laboring under a little delusion--very natural under the circumstances--when she sent me to the infirmary, and I spent my time there studying." "But, Miss Wyatt, this is very unusual. I shall not know how to mark you," Miss Skelling murmured in some distress. "Oh, mark me zero," said Patty, cheerfully. "It doesn't matter in the least--I know such a lot that I'll get through on the finals. Good-by; I'm sorry to have troubled you." And she closed the door and turned thoughtfully homeward. "Did it pay?" asked Priscilla. Patty laughed and murmured softly: "'The King of France rode up the hill with full ten thousand men; The King of France did gain the top, and then rode down again.'" "What are you talking about?" demanded Priscilla. "Old English," said Patty, as she sat down at her desk and commenced on the three days' work she had missed. VIII The Deceased Robert It was ten o'clock, and Patty, having just read her ethics over for the third time without comprehending it, had announced sleepily, "I shall have to be good by inspiration; I can't seem to grasp the rule," when a knock sounded on the door and a maid appeared with the announcement, "Mrs. Richards wishes to see Miss Wyatt." "At this hour!" Patty cried in dismay. "It must be something serious. Think, Priscilla. What have I been doing lately that would outrage the warden sufficiently to call me up at ten o'clock? You don't suppose I'm going to be suspended or rusticated or expelled or anything like that, do you? I _honestly_ can't think of a thing I've done."