. Marjorie
quaked when it came to the turn of IVa. As she expected, she had failed
in Chemistry, though she had just scraped through in Latin, Mathematics,
and General Knowledge. Her record could only be considered fair, and to
an ambitious girl like Marjorie it was humiliating to find herself lower
on the lists than others who were younger than herself.

"I'll brace up next term and do better," she thought, as Mrs. Morrison
congratulated Mollie Simpson, Laura Norris, and Enid Young on their
excellent work, and deplored the low standard of at least half of the
form.

Dona, greatly to her surprise, had done less badly than she expected,
and instead of finding herself the very last, was sixth from the bottom,
and actually above Mona Kenworthy--a circumstance which made her
literally gasp with surprise.

The afternoon was devoted to packing. Each girl found her box in her own
cubicle, and started to the joyful task of turning out her drawers. It
was a jolly, merry proceeding, even though Miss Norton and several other
teachers were hovering about to keep order and ensure that the girls
were really filling their trunks, instead of racing in and out of the
dormitories and talking, as would certainly have been the case if they
had been left to their own devices. By dint of good generalship on the
part of the House Mistress and her staff, St. Elgiva's completed its
arrangements twenty minutes before the other hostels, and had therefore
the credit of being visited first by the janitor and the gardener, whose
duty it was to carry down the luggage. The large boxes were taken away
that evening in carts to the station, and duly dispatched, each girl
keeping her necessaries for the night, which she would take home with
her in a hand-bag.

"No prep. after tea to-day, thank goodness!" said Betty Moore,
collecting her books and stowing them away in her locker. "I don't want
to see this wretched old history again for a month. I'm sick of
improving my mind. I'm not going to read a single line during the
holidays, not even stories. I'll go out riding every day, even if it's
wet. Mother says my pony's quite well again, and wants exercising. He'll
get it, bless him, while I'm at home."

"What do we do this evening instead of prep.?" asked Marjorie. "Games, I
suppose, or dancing?"

"Why, no, child, it's the School Union," returned Betty, slamming the
door of her locker.

"What's that?"

"Great Minerva! don't you know? You're painfu