At last the 9.45 warning bell rang and the girls knew they must leave, especially those who lived in other houses. With tears in her eyes Bess said good-night to the girls and begged them to say nothing about the matter, assuring them that she knew in time she could awaken Lois. After the door closed on the last girl, Bess returned to the sleeping girl on the couch. She was breathing deeply and so Bess did not despair of her life. She sat beside her and called and called to her to awaken. The moments flew by and the terrified girl felt that she must control herself before she could hope to control another. She must make a supreme effort to undo the harm she had done. She left the couch and walked slowly up and down the room, saying to herself, "Be calm; it must come out all right; she will awaken."
After perhaps half an hour she sat down again on the couch and looked Lois hard in the face. Then she rubbed her forehead and temples exactly as she had done when she sent her into the stupor, and almost screamed, "You must awaken; you must awaken, Lois, or I shall go mad." There was not a sign of awakening, and heartsick and discouraged Bess sank upon her knees almost exhausted. She prayed softly to her Father in Heaven for help in this awful moment, and then for the last time whispered, "Oh, Lois, Lois, awaken!" and she saw her eyelids begin to move very slightly and then gradually open. "Oh, Lois, you're really awake again; you're awake again. I'm so thankful!"
"'Thankful,' Bess, why, what do you mean? What are you doing on your knees by my couch?"
"Nothing, Lois, except praying that you'd wake up. Don't you remember anything about to-night?"
"No; all I know is that I'm very, very tired and I feel as though I could sleep a week. What happened?"
"Why, to-night to prove to the girls that there was such a thing as hypnotism, I put you to sleep and I couldn't make you wake up. I've been frightened almost to death ever since and I'll never, never try to hypnotize anybody again as long as I live. I wish I'd never heard anything about the subject. But you're all right now, and that's all I care about. I've had the most awful experience of my life. Look and see if my hair has turned white. We'd better go to bed now, but I must let the other girls know the first thing in the morning, for they were all as frightened as I."
When the psychology class met next morning it was a pretty sober little group that had studied together the night before, and two of them, at least, were a trifle pale. Miss Washburn could not understand what had fallen over the class, for it was generally very lively and at times troublesome. As luck would have it, after she had finished her lecture she called on Bess Johnson to talk on the subject of hypnotism. To the astonishment of the class (excepting, of course, her companions of the night before), who were accustomed to Bess' brilliant recitations, they heard her say, "I know nothing about it," and she turned as pale as though she had seen her father's ghost, and the question was passed on to Gertrude Jackson, next on the list, who discussed it at some length, until the bell rang and the class was dismissed.
From psychology Jean went into her English class and took her usual seat in the extreme left-hand corner near the open door. It was theme day, and Miss Whiting was to read some examples of what she considered good and bad themes. Jean listened in vain for one of hers among the good ones, for she had tried hard and was beginning to enjoy her English work. But among the themes Miss Whiting considered poor because of their faulty construction and poor English she recognized two of her recent attempts. She was hurt, and the tears sprang to her eyes to think of Miss Whiting's reading two of her themes before the entire class, as though one wouldn't have been enough! Of course everybody would know they were hers, although she overlooked the fact that no names were mentioned with the criticisms. She felt her face turning scarlet and tears rolling down her cheeks. She couldn't stay there to hear more of her awful themes read and she didn't dare ask Miss Whiting to be excused. She gave one glance at the open door and her mind was made up. Knowing Miss Whiting was very near-sighted, she stole very quietly out of the room before Miss Whiting or hardly any of the girls were aware of it.
No sooner out than she regretted her childish action and she wished she were back in the room. She wandered over to the library, determined to wait until the recitation was over and then go to Miss Whiting and apologize. After the class was dismissed and just as Miss Whiting was gathering up the papers on her desk, Jean walked up to her, smiling sweetly. "I've come to offer you an apology, Miss Whiting. I purposely left your class last hour in the midst of your reading. I felt so badly when you read two of my miserable little themes that I thought I couldn't stand it a moment longer, and as my seat is near the door I took French leave when you were not looking in my direction. It was a very silly thing to do, and I realized it the moment I was out of the room. I'm very sorry and hope you will accept my apology."