more than one
task mysteriously lightened. No remark was made, but Miss Mott reduced
the amount of preparation; Miss Bruce sent an invitation to tea, which
involved an idle hour, and shortcomings were passed over with wonderful
forbearance. Only Miss Everett "croaked," and, dearly as she loved her,
Rhoda was glad to keep out of Miss Everett's way just now. It was
unpleasant to be stared at by "eyes like gimlets," to be asked if one's
head ached, and warned gravely of the dangers of overwork.

"When I went up for the Cambridge Senior," began Miss Everett, and the
girl straightened herself defiantly, on the outlook for "sermons."

"When I went up for the Cambridge Senior I was not at school like you,
but studying at home with a tutor. My sister was delicate, so an old
college friend of my father's came to us for three hours a day. He was
delightful--a very prince of teachers--and we had such happy times, for
he entered into all our interests, and treated our opinions with as much
respect as if we had been men like himself. I remember disputing the
axioms of political economy, and arguing that a demand for commodities
_must_ be a demand for labour, and the delight with which he threw back
his head and laughed whenever I seemed to score a point. Instead of
snubbing me, and thinking it ridiculous that I should presume to dispute
accepted truths, he welcomed every sign of independent thought; and
there we would sit, arguing away, two girls of fifteen and sixteen and
the grey-headed man, as seriously as if history depended on our
decision. Later on, when I was going in for the examination, I joined
some of his afternoon classes at a school near by, so that I could work
up the subjects with other candidates. There was one girl in the class
called Mary Macgregor, a plain, unassuming little creature, who seemed
most ordinary in every way. When I first saw her I remember pitying her
because she looked so dull and commonplace. My dear, she had a brain
like an encyclopaedia!--simply crammed with knowledge, and what went in
at one ear stayed there for good, and never by any chance got mislaid.
You may think how clever she was when I tell you that she passed first
in all England, with distinction in every single subject that she took.
She won scholarships and honours and went up to Girton, and had posts
offered to her right and left, and practically established herself for
life. Well, to go back a long way, to the week bef