drop, too, my poor child. When you feel the fit coming on, put
down the teacup and grab a dictionary; then choose the toe you
want it to fall on,--superfluous aunt of the family, or some one
of that sort,--and you are all right. Bless you, Dropsy! Farewell,
my dear!"

Hildegarde took the girls directly up to her room, and they
admired all her arrangements as heartily as she could wish. Bell
exclaimed with amazement at the size of the room.

"To have all this for your own, your castle and defence," she
cried. "What would the girls at college say if they could see such
a room as this, and one girl living in it! Twelve by fourteen is
our rule, and two girls to that."

"Dear me!" said Hildegarde. "Why, I couldn't live without room."

"Oh yes, you could!" said Bell, laughing. "One gets used to
everything. It's rather good fun seeing how closely one can pack.
We have sixty-five pictures in our room, my chum and I. Oh, you
have my William! I didn't know anyone else had just exactly that
portrait."

"Your William, indeed!" cried Hildegarde, laughing. "Why, he is
mine, my very own, and no one ever began to love him as I do."

The two girls fell into a friendly discussion, and ran lightly
over the history of the Netherlands, with occasional excursions to
Italy, the Highlands, or the south of France, as one picture or
another claimed their attention. Hildegarde was enjoying herself