ng with gems! But if only--only I could turn them into money,
it might fulfil the big ambition of my life and send me to Newnham,
without troubling father for a penny! Can you wonder that I feel
impatient with watches and chains when I think of _that_?"

"I am sorry, my dear. I did not understand. I apologise!" said Lady
Hayes promptly. It was this unfailing sense of justice, combined with
the dignity which never forsook her under any stress of excitement or
agitation, which had been most largely instrumental in attracting the
girl's admiration. From the impetuous standpoint of youth it seemed an
almost inhuman pinnacle of perfection, but Darsie was quite determined
that at some far-distant elderly epoch--say, in thirty years' time--she
would begin practising these virtues on her own account. They seemed
the only decorous accompaniment of white hair and spectacles.

She stretched out a sunburnt hand and patted the old lady's shoulder
with an affectionate touch.

"All right! Don't worry. It _did_ seem greedy, and of course you
couldn't guess. You see, it's particularly hard because plain Ha-
Hannah Vernon, I mean--is going up, and that seems to make it worse for
me. Her father is richer than ours, and he believes in higher
education, so it's all settled that she is to go to Newnham, and she
talks about it all the time, and pities me when she's in a good temper,
and brags when she's not. And Dan would be at Cambridge, too, and Ralph
Percival, and, oh dear, oh dear, we'd have such _sport_! Balls, and
picnics, and cocoa parties, and boating in summer--no end of lovely
exciting pranks!"

"Excuse me, my dear,"--Lady Hayes was frosty again, staring stonily over
the rim of her spectacles--"excuse me, but would you kindly explain for
what reason you are anxious to go to Cambridge? I had imagined that it
was for education, now it appears that balls and picnics are the
attraction. Which of the two is it of which you are really thinking?"

"Oh, Aunt Maria, I'm a human girl! Of _both_!" cried Darsie, laughing.
"Education first, of course, because of the result, and all it will mean
afterwards, but if you want the truth, I shouldn't be so keen if it
wasn't for the fun! We know a girl who's just come down, and it sounds
such a lovely life... I'd work hard; I love work, and when there is any
on hand there's no peace for me till it's done; but _wouldn't_ I just
play, too! It would be the time of my life. Oh, Aunt