"Julius!--what an expression!"

"Well, my dear, it conveys my meaning, and, therefore, is a good
expression. What has been the matter? Has she had a fever? Is she
diseased?"

"Julius! No! Is that the way the Western people talk about young
ladies?--Mary is in poor health--rather delicate; but she does not
look so different from the rest of our girls--I, you know, am an
exception."

"Thank Heaven, you are, my dear Anne, and thank our dear, sensible
mother, who understands the agents and means of health."

"But Mary's mother is a sensible woman too."

"Not in her treatment of Mary, I am sure. Tell me how she lives.
What has she been about since I was here?"

"Why, soon after you went away, you know, I wrote to you that she
had gone to the--School. You know her parents are willing to do
everything for her--and Mary was very ambitious. They are hard
students at that school. Mary told me she studied from eight to ten
hours a day. She always got sick before examination, and had to send
home for lots of pills. I remember Mrs. Marvel once sending her four
boxes of Brandreth's at a time. But she took the first honours. At
the end of her first term, she came home, looking, as you say, as if
she had had a fever."

"And they sent her back?"