"It's all very well to say 'buck up'! You don't know what it is to feel faint. You're as strong as a horse. I'm really not fit to stand about!"
"Shall I ask Miss Fanny to let you go in and lie down?"
"I wish you would! I don't like to ask her myself; it seems making such a fuss."
Merle proffered the request, with which Miss Fanny, rather astonished, complied.
"Certainly, Sybil, if you really are ill! Shall I give you a dose of sal volatile?"
"No, thanks! I shall be all right if I can just rest on my bed," answered the plaintive voice.
"I daresay you'll soon feel better. It's a pity you'll miss the hockey practice," said Merle.
"What hockey practice?"
"Miss Mitchell has just told me to tell everybody. We're to play instead of having English language this afternoon."
Sybil's face was a study. But Miss Fanny's eyes were fixed upon her with such a questioning look that she was obliged to preserve her air of faintness and continue to pose as an invalid. There was nothing for it but to go and lie down. As she turned, however, she managed to whisper to Merle: