on her. She felt her aunt ought to know that the will was
destroyed, so that she might take the opportunity of making another.
More than once she tried indirectly to refer to the subject, but it was
a tender topic, and at the least hint Miss Beach's face would stiffen
and her voice harden; the old barrier between them would rise up again
wider than ever, and impossible to be spanned. Winona would have been
glad to do much for her aunt, but Miss Beach did not care to be treated
as an invalid. Like many energetic people, she refused to acknowledge
that she was ill, and the acceptance of little services seemed to her a
confession of her own weakness. It is rather hard to have your kindly
meant efforts repulsed, so Winona, finding that her offers of sympathy
met with no response, drew back into her shell, and the two continued to
live as before, on terms of friendship but never of intimacy. After
almost two years spent in the same house Winona knew her aunt little
better than on the day of her arrival. They had certain common grounds
for conversation, but their mutual reserve was maintained, and as
regarded each other's real thoughts they remained "strangers yet."

Miss Beach, however, took an interest in Winona's doings at school. She
read her monthly reports, and scolded her if her work had fallen below
standard. She expressed a guarded pleasure over successful matches, but
rubbed in the moral that games must not usurp her attention to the
detriment of her form subjects.

"You came here to learn something more than hockey!" she would remind
Winona. "It's a splendid exercise, but I'm afraid it won't prove a
career! I should like to see a better record for Latin and Chemistry;
they might very well have more attention!"

Winona had tried to persuade her aunt to come and watch one of the
matches, but Miss Beach had always found some engagement; she was
concerned in so many of the city's activities that her time was
generally carefully mapped out weeks beforehand. She consented, however,
to accept Miss Bishop's invitation to the Gymnasium Display, which was
to be given at the High School at the close of the Easter term.

This was a very important occasion in the estimation of the girls. It
was their first athletic show since the advent of Miss Barbour, the
Swedish drill mistress. Governors and parents were to be present, and
the excellence of the performance must justify the large amount which
had been spent upon gymnastic