eral mind was a blessed relief. Her parting words
made everyone laugh, and the car drove off with the cheery sound of that
laughter ringing in the air, and the remembrance of merry faces to cheer
Dreda's aching heart. She turned and crept upstairs to the study. She
had shed her own gala dress, thrusting it away in the cupboard as if she
never wished to behold it again. The study was filled with odd pieces
of furniture which had been taken out of the big classrooms, and the
fire was dying out upon the grate.

"Here sit I, and my broken heart!" sighed Dreda dramatically, as she
subsided into a chair and drew her shoulders together in an involuntary
shiver. It had been cold work standing at the door watching the
departure of the car, and the atmosphere of the deserted room was not
calculated to cheer her spirits. "When you've had a great shock your
constitution is enfeebled; when you're enfeebled, you are sensitive to
chills; a chill on an enfeebled constitution is generally fatal.
Perhaps I've received my death blow this afternoon in more ways than
one." Dreda sniffed and shivered miserably once more. The stream of
visitors was still departing, saying good-bye to Miss Bretherton and the
teachers in the drawing-room and making their way to the door. Dreda
would not risk leaving the study and encountering strange faces on the
staircase; besides which, it did not seem her place to seek her
companions at this moment. It was her companions who should seek _her_.

"In the hour of my triumph they all crowded round me; now I am a pelican
on the housetop, and no one cares if I am dead or alive. I must get
accustomed to it, I suppose. Shame and humiliation must henceforth be
my portion. Only fifteen and a half--in _years_. In suffering I'm an
old, old woman! Mr Rawdon was sorry; I saw it in his face; but he
liked Susan's best. Susan has won the prize. Where is Susan now? Has
she forgotten all about me?"

As if in answer to this question the handle of the door turned, and a
head was thrust round the corner. A voice exclaimed: "Here she is!" and
Nancy entered the room, followed closely by Susan herself. They stood
and looked at Dreda, and Dreda looked at them, but none of the three
uttered a word. Then suddenly Susan whispered something in Nancy's ear,
and while that young person hurried from the room with a most unusual
celerity, Susan dropped quietly on her knees beside the dying fire and
began coaxing it int