the examination to-morrow--to-day, and found Jessica in--in this--faint."

And the elder woman suddenly laid a hand on the girl's arm and looked up
at her with the confidence she always inspired. "Help me, dear!" she
whispered, with the dread of disgrace and an untimely ending to an
honourable career in her old grey eyes.

And Leonie smiled, answering with the superb confidence of youth, and a
slight ray of hope pierced the suffocating fog of fear, and brought
Cookie from the head of the bed where she had been standing in the shade
of a screen.

"Can I 'elp, Miss Lee-onny?"

"Cookie, _dear_--you and Miss Primstinn, Miss Leanto and--yes, and
Ellen--none of the girls--and quickly--there's not a moment to lose."

"The doctor's coming, Mum," said a voice from the half-open door.

"The doctor is coming, dear," repeated the Principal.

Leonie answered with a strange authority in her words.

"We will not wait for the doctor!" She passed the tips of her fingers
slowly across her forehead and down her cheek to the back of her neck, as
was her habit when trying to solve some problem. "No, we will not wait,
because--because _I_ know!"

Ten minutes later the door opened to let in a young man, who stood for a
moment outlined against a sea of faces, and then turned and shut the door