nctions at once! I know more German and French
than ninety girls out of a hundred. Two distinctions! It's a big
start. I wonder--I wonder if I could possibly be first!" said Rhoda to
herself, and her breath came fast, and her cheeks grew suddenly hot.
"Nine months! Nine months!" If she studied hard, and worked up the
subjects on which she was behind, might she not have a chance with the
rest? The first girl! Oh, if only it could be possible, what joy, what
rapture! What a demonstration of power before the school. She went off
into a blissful dream in which she stood apart, receiving the
congratulations of Miss Bruce and her staff, and saw Thomasina's face
regarding her with a new expression of awe. Then she came back to real
life, to look remorsefully at her new friend, and notice for the first
time her pinched and anxious air.

"But I would give Kathleen the money. I want nothing but the honour,"
she assured herself, shutting her mind obstinately against the
conviction that such a division might not be altogether easy to arrange.
"And Dorothy is going in, too; lots of girls are going in, so why
should not I? And if I enter I must do my best; nobody could object to
that!"

Nevertheless there was an unaccountable weight on her heart, which made
it a relief when the subject dropped, and Kathleen began to point out
the various out-buildings scattered over the grounds.

"That's the pavilion. We keep all the games there, and it's so nicely
furnished. There is quite a pretty sitting-room, and a stove, and all
the materials for making tea. On Saturday afternoons the winning teams
may stay behind and have tea there by themselves, and buy cakes from the
housekeeper. It's ripping! We look forward to it as the Saturday
treat, and aren't you just mad if your side loses! That's the joiner's
shop. You can have lessons if you like, and learn to make all sorts of
things; but I've no ambition to be a carpenter, so I don't go... That's
a summer-house, but it's so earwiggy that we leave it alone... That was
meant to be a swimming-bath, but the water comes straight from a well,
and it is so deadly cold that the girls got cramp, and Miss Bruce
forbade them to use it any more. It looks wretchedly deserted now. If
you want to be miserable all by yourself you couldn't have a better
place. It's so still and dark, and the birds have built their nests in
the corners, and come suddenly flying past, and frighten you out o