bicle her pallid face roused Tom's instant
attention.

"Rhoda, you are ill!" she cried, her chaffing manner changing at once,
as she realised the seriousness of the occasion. "What's the matter?
Didn't you sleep? Let me feel your hand--. Goodness, what a frog! You
had better lie down, and let me send for nurse."

"No, thank you, Tom, _please_! It's only excitement. I shall be better
after breakfast. Please, please, don't make a fuss!"

"Humph!" said Tom shortly, "just as you like. If you feel yourself
going, stoop down and pretend to fasten your shoe, and give a scrub to
your cheeks before passing Miss Bruce. She'll spot you in a moment if
you go in with a face like that."

Thus adjured, Rhoda "scrubbed her cheeks" all the way downstairs, and
looked so rosy as she passed the Principal that the good lady felt much
relieved. She had had some anxious thoughts about Rhoda Chester of
late, and was only too glad to feel that her anxiety had been needless;
but, alas! three times over during breakfast did Rhoda stoop down to
button her shoe, and in vain did her companions press food upon her. A
sumptuous breakfast had been served in honour of the occasion, but ham
and eggs seemed just the last things in the world that she wanted to
eat, while the sight of fried fish took away the last remnant of
appetite. She drank her tea, trying to laugh with the rest, and to take
no notice of the swaying movement with which the walls whirled round
from time to time, or of the extraordinary distance from which the
girls' voices sounded in her ears.

"She's game! She's real game!" said Tom to herself, watching the set
face with her sharp little eyes, "but she's uncommon bad all the same.
I'll put Evie on her track!" So Miss Everett's attention was duly
called to the condition of her pupil, and Rhoda was dosed with sal-
volatile, and provided with smelling salts to keep in her pocket. Not a
word of reproach was spoken, and Evie indeed appeared to treat the
indisposition as quite an orthodox thing under the circumstances. So
affectionate was she, so kind and cheery, and so thoughtful were the
girls in giving up the best seats in omnibus and train, and in offering
supporting arms along platforms, that Rhoda felt inclined to cry with
mingled gratitude and remorse.

When the hall was reached in which the examination was to be held, she
had yet another dose of sal-volatile as a preparation for the ordeal of
the arithmetical pa