had given place to
an outlook which was positively jaunty in tone.

"It's a nice old world, after all," Rowena wrote. "It is stupid to
allow oneself to get humped, for sometimes at the very moment when you
believe that all is over, the very nicest things are just about to
begin. Put that in your essay, and make moral reflections. `Oft-times
in our ignorance we believe ... but looking back over a gap of time we
can see--A trivial word, a passing glance, the choice of a road, on such
trifles may depend ... Discipline is good for us all, but joy cometh in
the morning.' You know the sort of thing. For once I really wish I
could write your essay for you. I feel just in the mood to write pages.
I've been out riding with Mr Seton and his cousins three times this
week, and the exercise is so exhilarating. The cousins are staying at
the Manor House--such nice girls! We have taken quite a fancy to one
another, and they lend me a mount, so that we can go about together Mr
Seton sends you his best wishes for the competition. We talked about it
together when we were riding to-day. He is so clever, and has such
beautiful thoughts. He is looking forward most awfully to his life, and
says it gets better and better all the time. I feel quite ashamed to
remember how depressed and discontented I have been, and how irritable
with poor old Maud. She can't help it, poor dear, if she _is_ stupid;
one ought to be patient with her, and satisfied with a peaceful home
life! I _am_ satisfied now. To-morrow I go to lunch at the Manor
House."

"But it was to _me_ he offered the mount," was Dreda's comment, not
without a touch of offence. Then with a benevolent impulse: "Oh, well,
Ro can have it until the holidays, and then he'll take me." Rowena's
suggestions as to the essay were too valuable to be ignored, and the
fact that they were in exact contradiction of the pessimistic passages
on persecution last added, was no hindrance to an author of Etheldreda's
ingenuity. She had simply to write, "On the other hand, it may be
said," and in came Rowena's reflections as pat as possible. During
those next few days her versatile mind seized on everything that she
heard, saw, or read, which could by any possibility be turned into
material for the essay, until page after page was filled with her big
straggling handwriting, and while her companions were still biting their
pens in search of inspiration, she was confronted by the task of
re