girls crowded to look on, while the Captain stood apart surrounded
by a few satellites from the Committee, as truly the monarch of all she
surveyed as any king who ever graced a throne. The thoughts of each
Fresher turned with an anguish of appeal towards this figure; a smile on
her face raised them to the seventh heaven; a frown laid them in the
dust! Extraordinary to think that two short years ago this oracle had
been a Fresher like themselves! Inconceivable to imagine that in two
years to come they themselves might occupy that same magnificent
altitude!

The eyes of the Oracle fell upon Hannah and approved what she saw, and
henceforth Hannah took part in team practices, and lorded it over
Darsie, who in her turn affected a growing antagonism to the game.

"You can have too much of a good thing--even of games--and I seem to
have _eaten_ hockey every meal since I arrived!" she announced
impatiently; and in truth, since an unwritten law forbade the discussion
of "shop" at table, the conversation was largely limited to
dissertations on this the most popular of games.

On Sundays the two girls went together to King's College Chapel and
gazed with admiration at the vaulted stone roof, with its marvellous fan
tracery; at its towering stained-glass windows, and the screen bearing
the monogram of Anne Boleyn; at the delicate carving of the stalls. It
was so wonderfully different from the dreary town edifice in which they
had been accustomed to worship, with its painted walls, heavy gallery,
and wheezy organ played by an indifferent musician--so wonderfully,
gloriously different that Darsie felt a pricking at the back of her eyes
as though she were ready to cry for sheer pleasure and admiration. The
music and the sermon seemed alike perfect, and Darsie ardently followed
each stage of the service.

Some people are inclined to grow frivolous and forgetful when the world
goes well with them and the desire of their hearts is accomplished;
others are filled with a passion of gratitude and thanksgiving, and
Darsie Garnett belonged to the latter category. Prosperity made her
more humble, more kindly, more overflowing with love to God and man. A
portrait of Lady Hayes stood on her study mantelpiece, and every morning
and evening she bent her sunny head to kiss the stern old face. Dear
old Aunt Maria! she had so loved being kissed--_really_ kissed, as if
one meant it. If in that higher life to which she had gone she knew
w