instantly convinced me that any uneasiness on this score was entirely
superfluous.

"You certainly all look remarkably well," I observed, genially,
"particularly sunburnt and brow--"

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--"