ct told her that the remark
would be unpalatable and indiscreet, so she quickly changed her ground.

"Oh! only that I find it difficult to learn new things," she replied, in
some confusion.

"Indeed! Well, I suppose you'll improve when you've been here a little
while," returned Ursula, with a meaning smile that was partly a sneer,
and made Aldred decidedly red and uncomfortable.

During the earlier part of the term, try as she might, Aldred was not
able to see her name in the coveted position of heading the list for the
Fourth Form. One week she failed in geometry, another in French; if her
German was correct, her arithmetic proved inaccurate, and some
unexpected slip would pull her down. At the end of the sixth week,
however, she at last dared to hope. She was aware that she had done
unusually well, both in the ordinary class subjects and in the Friday
morning examination; while Ursula, her chief opponent, had had an
exercise returned, and received a bad mark for botany. The lists were
always posted up on the notice-board in the corridor just before
tea-time on Saturday afternoon, and there was generally a rush to read
them. On this particular Saturday, Aldred determined to be the first to
cull the news. She was too proud to allow herself to seem anxious, so
she hung about the corridor, pretending that she was searching for a
lost piece of india-rubber, and that she was thrillingly interested in
the view of the dripping garden through the side window. At last Miss
Drummond appeared, pinned the papers neatly on to the notice-board, and
re-entered the library. Aldred strolled up as casually as she could;
but Mabel, who had also been on the look-out, was before her.

"You're top! You're top!" shrieked the latter. "There it is: 'No. 1,
Aldred Laurence.' Oh, how lovely! You've beaten Ursula by twenty marks.
It's splendid! Come and see for yourself!"

Though inwardly she felt she had satisfied her ambition, Aldred took the
announcement with the greatest outward sang-froid.

"Oh! am I?" she replied nonchalantly. "No, I don't want to see, thanks;
I can take your word for it."

"How calm you are! I should have been fearfully excited if it had been:
'No. 1, Mabel Farrington.'"

"What's the use of getting excited? Let us go into the dressing-room,
and wash our hands for tea."

Mabel linked her arm affectionately in that of Aldred, and accompanied
her down the passage, talking as she went.

"I knew you would come out t