ce
and a source of infinite enjoyment to its owner, but it does not supply
the place of a good memory. Examiners are prosaic beings who require
solid facts, and even the style of a Macaulay or a Carlyle would not
satisfy them unless accompanied by definite answers to their set
questions. By a piece of unparalleled luck, Winona had secured and
retained her County Scholarship, but her powers of essay writing were
not likely to serve her in such good stead again. She often groaned when
she thought of the examinations. Miss Bishop, Aunt Harriet, and her
mother would all be so disappointed if she failed, and alas! her failure
seemed only too probable.
"Miss Goodson doesn't tell me plump out that I'll be plucked, but I can
see she thinks so!" confided Winona to Garnet one day.
"Then show her she is wrong!"
"Not much chance of that, I'm afraid, but I'm doing my level best. I get
up at six every morning, and slave before breakfast."
"So do I, but I get such frightful headaches," sighed Garnet. "I've been
nearly mad with them. My cousin took me to the doctor yesterday. He says
it's my eyes. I shan't be at school to-morrow. I have to go to
Dunningham to see a specialist."
"Poor old girl! You never told me about your headaches."
"You never asked me! I've seen so little of you lately;"
Winona's conscience smote her. She had rather neglected Garnet since
they had entered the Sixth Form. During their year in V.a. they
had been fast friends. As new girls together and scholarship holders, a
close tie had existed between them, and they had shared in many small
excitements and adventures. When Winona was chosen Games Captain,
however, their interests seemed to separate. Garnet was not athletic,
she cared little for hockey or cricket, and preferred to devote her
surplus energies to the Literary Society or the Debating Club. Almost
inevitably they had drifted apart. Winona, wrapped up in the supreme
fascinations of hockey matches and gymnasium practice, had chummed with
Marjorie Kemp, Bessie Kirk, and Joyce Newton, who shared her enthusiasm
for games. She remembered with a pang of self-reproach that she had not
walked round the playground with Garnet once this term. Winona admired
fidelity, but she certainly could not pride herself upon having
practiced that virtue of late.
Garnet was absent from her desk next day, but when she returned to the
school on Thursday, Winona sought an opportunity, and bore her off for a
privat
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