thought much of school honours, reminded her that Miss Tatham would
expect a high percentage of marks, and extracted a promise that the
sketching-materials should not be touched until the holidays.

"You're not so well up in your work that you can afford to waste a
moment," she warned. "You ought to be doing more preparation instead of
less. And after all those hours bending over books you must get out of
doors for a brisk walk or play tennis. I'm not going to have you sitting
still painting. You'd soon be complaining of headaches. _I_ know how to
manage girls."

Lesbia submitted, but groaned in private. She sometimes wished Mrs.
Patterson were not _quite_ so sensible. The whole family was urging her
on to work. Kitty coached her daily in mathematics, and Joan helped her
with her Latin, the two subjects in which she was weakest. Having taken
the responsibility of their young cousin, they were determined (as they
expressed it) "to see her through", and to pitchfork her willy-nilly into
the scholastic profession as the readiest path to independence. At
present Lesbia felt the road to knowledge was much beset with thorns and
briars. She envied Regina's accurate memory and wonderful clearness in
grasping all arithmetical problems.

"You're a sort of calculating genius," she assured her friend. "I wish
I'd your recipe. I'm afraid I'll be a muddle-head to the end of my
days."

"So shall I," agreed Ermie, with unction. "Miss Pratt says airily: 'Do
an extra half-hour of prep', but I find the longer I work the stupider I
am. VA isn't going to get much credit out of _me_ in the exams. I always
forget things when I see the questions and remember them afterwards when
it's too late and they're no use."

"Don't say 'no use'," preached Carrie.

"Yes, I _do_ say 'no use', Carrie Turner, so don't be sanctimonious.
Geometry and Latin may be all right in an exam-room, but what good are
they going to be to me when I'm middle-aged and married?"

"Perhaps you'll never be either!"

"Oh come! Don't consign me to an early grave or perpetual spinsterhood.
_I_ think exams are a relic of the barbarous ages, and they ought to be
banished, with thumb-screws, and the rack, and all other instruments of
torture. I'd like to write to the newspapers about it."

The grousing of certain unwilling victims in VA made no difference at
all to the examinations, which approached as relentlessly as the car of
Juggernaut, and as unfailingly as the seaso