The Luckiest Girl in the School

Cr

atha James. Most unfortunately she found her theory acted in the opposite direction. Closer acquaintance with her Form subjects proved their extreme toughness. She was not nearly up to the standard of the rest of the girls. Her Latin grammar was shaky, her French only a trifle better, she had merely a nodding acquaintance with geometry, and had not before studie

right?" she said wistf

iss Huntley keeps one up to the mark. But one must expect that

sea in math.

as difficult as the ones they gave us in the entrance exa

rely managed half the paper.

ooked su

p for it. I was told that we should probably stand or fall by mat

ntley at first was patient, but as the weeks wore on, and Winona still wallowed in a quagmire of amazing mistakes, she grew sarcastic. The girl winced under some of her cutting remarks. Apparently the mistress imagined her failure to be due to laziness and inattention, and sooner than confess that she could not understand the work, Winona was silent. She

scruple how much to require from girls in V.a. To those who appeared to be really trying their best she was ready to give intelligent help, but she had no mercy for slackers. She was possessed of a certain amount of dry humor, greatly appreciated by the form en bloc, though each quaked privately lest, through some unlucky slip, she might find h

nfully wobbling of Winona's shaky subjects. She had puzzled in vain over this particular piece of tra

in the dressing-room before nine o'clock. "If Bunty puts me to construe anywh

forehead like that-you're making permanent l

lp it when

don't

u; you don't have to receive

attention. Marjorie Kemp and Olave Parry had already translated half of the fatal page, with tolerable credit. Miss Huntley's eye was wandering in the direction of Irene Mills. Winona dared to breathe. Then, alas! alas! Some unlucky star caused the mistress to look back towards the middle of the r

are! You can pick them up after the lesson," observed

icult. Even the words which she had carefully looked up in the dictionary and learned by heart escaped her fickle memory. She stumbled and

ict any more of your bungling upon the form. We must see if we can find a way of sharpening your wits. Your brain seems to

o'clock, and hurried out of the dressing-room without speaking to any one. She had a wild project of pleading a headache, and begging Aunt Harriet to let her stop at home for the rest of the day. But then to-morrow's explana

f tea?" asked Alice the housemaid, noticing that the pudding

ust fly off to school as quickly a

to her portfolio, and started. It was only when she was half-way down Church Street that she remembered she had left her book of studies on the top of the piano. Needless to say, her lesson that d

ed, separately, and play each twenty times in succession, slowly at first and then faster, and remember here that it is the left hand which gives the melody, and the r

gh every one of the sixty minutes was bringing her nearer to her dreaded interview. At four o'clock, with a horrible sinking feeling in her heart, and a trembling sensation in her knees, she knocked at the door of the head-mistress's study, an

aused, laid down her pe

she said quietly. "I wish to h

ring mere black specks in the midst of a wide circle of blue. This peculiarity gave her a particularly intense and penet

not think you are trying your best. At first, when you were totally new to your Form, I suspended judgment, but you have been here nearly half a term now-quit

She could think of nothi

derstand how a girl who did so remarkably well in the entrance examination can

ed Winona, in a very subdued voice. "I

op looked

icult for you. If that is the c

who could not reach the standard of the Sixth, and who went by the nickname of "owls" or "stupids." The prospect of bein

equally close application. Here is Miss Huntley's report: 'French, weak; Latin, beneath criticism; mathematics, extremely bad.' Yet in all these three subjects you gained a high perce

he sheets of foolscap

my papers,"

. They're marked wi

number 11, I w

ned a drawer in her bure

white," she replied. "N

and the ruddy-haired girl had collided at the door of the examination-room, and dropped their cards. In picking them up, they must have effected an exchange. She remembere

have the rest of the candidates' papers in this bundle. Let me see-yes, here is No. 10. Is this your handwrit

ground seemed slipping from under her feet. She tried to speak, but fail

ost unfortunate mistake, and places the school in an extremely awkward position. I must consult with the Gover

er world had suddenly turned topsy-turvy; instead of being the winner of the County Scholarship, she was among the rejected candidates. In her heart of hearts she had always marveled how her indifferent papers could have scored such a success. She wondered this explanation had never occurred to her before. All this time she had been wearing another girl's laur

t growing up. She shrank from speculating how her mother would receive the bad news. Mrs. Woodward was one of those parents who expect their children to gain the prizes which they were incapable of winning for themselves. She had claimed a kind of second-hand credit in her daughter's triumph. Winona knew from past experience that so keen a disappointment would invol

how she got through the week that followed. It stayed afterwards in her memory as a period of black darkness, a valley of humiliation, in which her old childish self slipped away, and a new, stronger and more capable personality was born to face the future. She had resigned herself so utterly to

was going to happen about the mat

eekly. She did not add that she had s

and a capacity for thought which may be worthy of training. On the strength of this-and this alone-the Governors have decided to allow you to retain your scholarship. In so doing they are perfectly within their rights. They did not undertake to grant free tuition to the candidate who scored the highest number of marks, but to the one who, in their opinion, was most likely to benefit by the school course. It was a matter to be settled entirely at their discretion. I have carefully re-read your papers, and compared them with your form record, and I come to the conclusion t

my very best!" stammered Winona, quite

private tuition. Mark that on your time-table, and go to her this afternoon in the Preparato

rs, had actually approved of her essay to the extent of allowing it to stand as her qualification for the Scholarship! She blessed Lady Jane Grey, and Edgar Allan Poe, and Browning, and André de Chénier, and the happy chance that had made her combine

han't be sorry that they let me stay after all! Oh, I