Hho EXAMINATION NERVES by *Rosamiond LEHMANN: Judith walked in a dream among the pale examina- tion faces that fowed "to theit doom’. . Already. at nine o'clock the heat struck up from the streets, _roll- ed downwards, from, the roofs. By..midday, it would +be extremely unpleasant in’ Cambridge. This. was the great. examination hall. Girls were _filing in, each carrying'a glass of water, and searching in a sort of panic for her place. Here was a white ticket” Jebelled Earle, J, So Judith Earle really was ‘expected, an integral part of this grotesque organized unreality. No hope now: All over the room girls’ heads turned, nodding and winking at friends, whispering, giggling. and grimac- ing with desperate bravery. One simulated suicide ‘by leaning her bosom on her fountain-pen, Just behind sat Mabel. Her face was glistening and ghastly , and she sniffed at a bottle of smelling salts . “Mabel, you're not going to faint?” “No: I don’t think so. T’ll get better later, Good luck, Judith.” ~ She summoned a smile, even flushed faintly . ‘Then panic descended suddenly upon Judith. Her head was like a floating bubble ; there was nothing in it at all. She caught at threads of knowledge and they broke, withered ‘and dissolved like cobwebs in the hand. She strug- gled to throw. off a crowding confusion of half-remembered words.” A headful +5 of useless scraps rattling in emptiness— ‘The clock struck nine. “You can begin now,” said a thin voice from the dais, ‘There was an enormous sigh, a rustling’ of paper, then silence. _-The questions had, nearly all, at first glance a-familiar reassuring look: «Ir se was all right.” Panic vanished, the mind assembled its energies coolly , pre- cisely, the pen flew. ‘After an hour the first pause to cool her forehead with a stick of frozen. Eau de Cologne and to sip some water. Behind, poor Mabel’s dry little cough and _ sniif went on. s ss Another hour fied . The trouble was having too much to say, rather than too little. The room was rigid, dark with concentration now. Three hours. It was over . You could not remember what you had written;, but you had never felt more firm and sure of mind. Three hours nearer to life. Dusty Answer, 1927. — ‘dgu:dié — rould — ‘keimabridg ‘snti‘eliti — gri/meisi —’sjuisaid —‘buzam — ‘meibl — ‘glisniq — ‘go:stli — ‘samend — ‘nolidg — di'zolvd —‘deiis — 'raslin — rho‘Juarig — “kudh — iforid —“oudaka'loun — kat —~ ‘ridgid.