three feet--four feet! Well done, Janie! Go on!
Go on! You're safe! Don't flag now!"

"Oh! Hurrah for St. Chad's! She's actually won!"

The wild delight of the Chaddites at this most marvellous and
unexpected achievement was beyond all bounds. They cheered themselves
nearly hoarse, and waved their handkerchiefs in the exuberance of their
joy. To have gained the Atalanta race was a score for their house
which, added to their previous cricket successes, would place it on the
highest pinnacle of the athletic records of the year.

"And to think that my delicate Janie should be capable of such a feat!"
exclaimed Mrs. Henderson, who had watched the contest with hardly less
excitement than the Chaddites themselves. "Chessington has been the
making of her, and I cannot thank you enough, Miss Cavendish, for your
care of her general health. She is another girl from what she was two
years ago. The doctor always told me that plenty of exercise would be
her salvation, but I could never persuade her to run about at home."

"I am as delighted as you at the change," declared Miss Cavendish.
"Janie has shown us quite a new phase to-day, and we shall take care
that she keeps up to this standard."

Janie herself, panting and flushed with victory, heard the applause
almost as in a dream. It was sweet to her ears, yet it was not the
reward for which she had striven. Her eager gaze searched down the long
line of clapping girls till she found Honor's face. For a moment their
eyes met, but in that one swift glance she read all she wished to
learn, and could interpret without the medium of language her friend's
unspoken thoughts: "It was a bargain. You have kept your part of it,
and I will keep mine."

The Honor who returned to Ireland next day was indeed changed from the
one who had left home in disgrace only thirteen weeks before--so much
more thoughtful, sympathetic, and considerate, with such higher ideals
and nobler aspirations, that she scarcely seemed the same: an Honor who
could tread softly in her mother's room, and give the required
tenderness to that dear one who was to be spared so short a time to
her; an Honor who, while keeping all her old love of fun, could forget
self, and turn her merriment into sunshine for others. Character is a
plant of slow growth, and she was not yet all she might be; but she had
set her foot on the upward ladder, and whether at school, or at home,
or in after years, life to her would always mean a c