down and submitted to Miss Drummond, who would be
sure to institute a close enquiry into the reason for such a universal
failure. Everything seemed to go wrong, even English literature, upon
which Phoebe had counted. Instead of taking examples of metre, Miss
Webb asked for the chronological lives of authors, and lists of their
works; or for the plots and principal characters of Shakespeare's plays.
Physical geography fared no better, for she demanded an exact definition
of terms, and very precise explanations of various phenomena, and would
take no half-replies. She had evidently prepared carefully for the
examination, and (when she was not continually interrupted by irrelevant
questions) had a far better grasp of her subjects than her pupils had
supposed.

The time dragged on slowly. No morning had ever seemed so long, in the
opinion of the girls. The weary rounds of literature and physical
geography were succeeded by English grammar, with a discomfiting
interval of French verbs. Aldred, surreptitiously consulting her watch,
found it was just after half-past ten. Nearly half an hour, therefore,
must elapse before lunch, and Miss Webb was already opening the Roman
history primer. A look of horror passed along the Form. If their other
subjects had been weak, this was decidedly weaker. Not one could
remember a quarter of what she had learned. They had hoped that, as this
subject was the last on the list, it would have been left so late that
only a few pages could be covered; they certainly had not calculated on
spending twenty-five minutes at it.

"I shall miss every turn!" thought Aldred. "It's dreadful! I've done so
fearfully badly already. I believe I've only got about thirty per cent.,
and this will put me lower still. Miss Drummond never passes anyone on
less than half marks. What can we do?"

She caught her breath, for an idea had suddenly flashed into her
mind--an idea so daring, although so feasible, that its boldness almost
frightened her. The small clock on the chimney-piece was not going, and
Miss Webb generally kept time by the striking of the great clock that
stood on the landing outside. If this clock could be put forward, the
Form might be dismissed almost at once, instead of enduring the
purgatory of any more horrible questions. Of course, there would be the
danger of discovery, and consequently of getting into a serious scrape,
but Aldred decided that something must be risked. A cold from which she
was