theless successful season. Out of nine hockey matches the team had
lost only three--not a bad record for a school that was still in the
infancy of its Games reputation. The Old Girls' Guild had got up its
eleven, and had practiced with enthusiasm under the captaincy of Kirsty
Paterson. A most exciting Past _versus_ Present match had been played,
resulting in a narrow victory for the school. Winona felt prouder of
this success than of any other triumph the team had scored, for Kirsty
had congratulated her afterwards, and praise from her former captain was
very sweet. It had been the last match of the season, so it made a
satisfactory finish to her work. She felt quite sentimental as she put
by her hockey-stick. Next season there would be a fresh captain, and she
would have left the High School! She wished she were staying another
year, but her scholarship would expire at the end of July. She could
hardly believe that she had been nearly two years at the school, and
that only one term more remained to her. Well, it would be the summer
term, which was the pleasantest of all, and though hockey was over, she
had the cricket season before her. The Seaton High should score at the
wicket if it were in her power to coach a successful team.

Towards the end of March Winona had an interlude which for the time took
her thoughts even from the omnipresent topic of sports. Percy, who had
been in training with his regiment at Duncastle, was ordered to the
Front. He was allowed thirty-six hours' leave, and came home for a
Sunday. Winona spent that week-end at Highfield, and the memory of it
always remained a very precious one. Percy in his khaki seemed much
changed, and though she only had him for a few minutes quite to herself,
she felt that the old tie between them had strengthened. Her letters to
him in future would be different. During the last year they had both
slacked a little in their correspondence, each perhaps unconsciously
feeling that the other's standpoint was changing; now they had met again
on a new basis, and realized once more a common bond of sympathy. Percy,
absorbed in describing his new life, scarcely mentioned Aunt Harriet.
The episode of the burning of the paper seemed to have faded from his
memory, or he had conveniently buried it in oblivion. Winona had never
forgotten it. It remained still the one shadow in her career at Seaton.
Now especially, since Miss Beach's recent ill-health, the secret weighed
heavily up