a day I shall learn a lot. Won't the girls stare
when I come back, and go soaring up the class! I shouldn't wonder if I
got a remove. It will be impossible to work up to Thomasina and her
set, but at any rate I'll be past the baby stages, and not disgrace
myself in the examinations."

All the world seemed bounded by examinations at present. Thomasina and
the elder girls working steadily towards the goal of the "Matric";
Kathleen and her friends dreaming night and day of the "Oxford"; while
nearer at hand loomed the school examinations, which ended the term.
Rhoda was in a fever of anxiety to acquit herself well in the eyes of
her companions on this occasion, and could think, speak, and dream of
nothing else. Even her joy of getting her remove from the "Bantlings"
into a higher team was swallowed up in the overwhelming interest, while
Dorothy was filled at once with admiration and disgust at the monotony
of her conversation.

"I don't know, and I don't care!" she replied callously, when anxiously
consulted about a point in mathematics. "I've come out to play, and I'm
not going to rack my brains for you or anyone else. You are getting a
regular bore, Rhoda! It's like walking about with `Magnall's
Questions.' Let's talk about frolics, or holidays, or something nice,
and not worry about stupid old lessons."

Well! Rhoda told herself, it was no wonder if Dorothy _were_ medium, if
this was the way she regarded her studies. If she took no more interest
than this in the coming contest, what could she expect from the result?
She would be sorry, poor dear, when she saw her name at the bottom of
the list! There was no help to be expected from Dorothy; but Rhoda
stored up a few knotty questions, and took the first opportunity of
asking Tom for a solution. She had discovered that Tom liked nothing
better than to be consulted by the younger girls, and had a tactful way
of asking help in return, which took away the sense of obligation.

"Oh, by-the-by," she would call to Rhoda, in her elegant fashion, "you
are a bit of a German sausage, aren't you? Just read over that passage
for me. I've been puzzling over it for the whole of the evening," and
then would follow some blissful moments, when Rhoda would skim lightly
over the difficulty, and feel the eyes of the girls fixed admiringly
upon her.

In the present instance a wet Saturday afternoon afforded a good
opportunity for the desired questioning. The Hurst girls d