hort suddenly, her attention arrested by the scraping
of chairs within the parlour, and concluded in a very different tone,
"The girls are coming! For pity's sake don't let Tom find us
sentimentalising here! Fly, Rhoda, fly!" and off she ran along the
corridor, flop, flop, flop, on her flat-soled shoes, as much in fear of
the scrutiny of the head girl as the youngest Blue in the house!

CHAPTER TWELVE.

HOME AGAIN.

The week of examination passed slowly by, and the morning dawned when
the all-important lists were to be read aloud. The girls were tired
after the strain, the teachers exhausted by the work of reading over
hundreds of papers, and it was consequently a somewhat pale and
dejected-looking audience which assembled in the Hall to hear the
report.

Rhoda sat tense on her seat, and puzzled for some moments over the
meaning of a certain dull, throbbing noise, before discovering that it
was the beating of her own heart. It seemed to her morbid sensitiveness
that every eye was upon her, that everyone was waiting to hear what
place the new girl had taken. When Miss Bruce began to read she could
hardly command herself sufficiently to listen, but the first mention of
her own name brought her to her bearings with a shock of dismay. After
all her work, her care, her preparation, to be so low as this, to take
so poor a place! The mortification was so bitter that she would fain
have hidden herself out of reach of consolation, but to her surprise, so
far from condoling, teachers and pupils alike seemed surprised that she
had done so well.

"You have worked admirably, Rhoda. I am pleased with you," said Miss
Murray.

"Well done, Fuzzy!" cried Tom, and even Miss Bruce said graciously:

"Very good progress for a first term, Rhoda!"

It was evident from their manner that they meant what they said, and
another girl might have gleaned comfort from the realisation that she
had expected too much of her own abilities. Not so Rhoda! It was but
an added sting to discover that she had been ranked so low, that an even
poorer result would have created no astonishment. She was
congratulated, forsooth, on what seemed to her the bitterest
humiliation! If anything was needed to strengthen the determination to
excel at any and every cost, this attitude of the school was sufficient.
In the solitude of the cubicle she vowed to herself that the day should
come, and that speedily, when she would be estimated at her right