window, seemed
the most valuable of all; their brains felt clearer, and they were often
able to grasp problems and difficult points which had eluded them the
evening before.

Except for the ordinary practices which formed part of the school
curriculum, Winona was obliged for the present to appoint Bessie Kirk as
her deputy-Captain. She had no time herself to train juniors, to act
referee, or to stand watching tennis sets. It meant a great sacrifice to
relinquish these most congenial duties, but she knew Miss Bishop and
Miss Goodson approved, and she promised herself to return to them all
the more heartily when the examination should be over. She would ask
Bessie wistfully for reports of the progress of various stars who were
in training, and managed to keep in touch with the games, though she
could not always participate in them.

"Wait till June's over, and I'm emancipated! Then won't I have the time
of my life!" she announced. "Thank goodness the match with Binworth
isn't till July 21st!"

The weeks of strenuous work passed slowly by. The weather was warm and
sultry, with frequent thunderstorms, not a favorable atmosphere for
study. Garnet flagged palpably, and lost her roses. To Winona the time
seemed interminable. The task she had undertaken of helping her friend
was a formidable one. It needed all her courage to persevere. Sometimes
she longed just for an evening to throw it up, and go and play tennis
instead, but every hour was important to Garnet, and must not be lost.
Winona often had to set her teeth and force herself to resist the
alluring sound of the tennis in the next-door garden, where she had a
standing invitation to come and play, and it took all the will power of
which she was capable to focus her attention on the examination
subjects. She tried not to let Garnet see how much the effort cost her;
the latter was sensitive, and painfully conscious of being a burden.
Miss Beach dosed both the girls with tonics, and insisted upon their
taking a certain amount of exercise.

"Work by all means, but don't over-work," was her recommendation.
"There's such a thing as bending a bow until it breaks. I don't like to
see such white cheeks!"

The examination was for entering Dunningham University, and must be
taken at that city. The Governors of the Seaton High School had offered
a scholarship, tenable for three years, to whichever of their
candidates, obtaining First Class honors, appeared highest on the list