Ritchie did three, and then could not go on, for the book that the others were in was lost till last evening, and then he was writing for papa.

So I thought I would do them before we went to Cocksmoor, and that I should squeeze time out of the morning; but I got a bit of Sophocles that was so horridly hard it ate up all my time, and I don't understand it properly now; I must get Norman to tell me.

And that ran in my head and made me make a mistake in my sum, and have to begin it again.

Then, just as I thought I had saved time over the exercise, comes Miss Winter and tells me I must do it over again, and scolds me besides about the ink on my fingers.

She would send me up at once to get it off, and I could not find nurse and her bottle of stuff for it, so that wasted ever so much more time, and I was so vexed that, really and truly, my hand shook and I could not write any better." "No, I thought it looked as if you had been in one of your agonies." "And she thought I did it on purpose, and that made me angry, and so we got into a dispute, and away went all the little moment I might have had, and I was forced to go to Cocksmoor as a promise breaker!" "Don't you think you had better have taken pains at first ?" "Well, so I did with the sense, but I hadn't time to look at the writing much." "You would have made better speed if you had." "Oh, yes, I know I was wrong, but it is a great plague altogether.
Really, Margaret, I shan't get Thucydides done." "You must wait a little longer, please, Ethel, for I want to say to you that I am afraid you are doing too much, and that prevents you from doing things well, as you were trying to do last autumn." "You are not thinking of my not going to Cocksmoor ?" cried Ethel vehemently.
"I want you to consider what is to be done, dear Ethel.