mart, and take her out, and get her
the very best husband I could. Why, old man, what does a woman want
with all that learning?"

"If a woman has brains she's bound to use them," replied the old man, as
he sat down by the kitchen fire.

Meanwhile Ruth went on with her lessons. After a time, however, she
uttered a sigh. She flung down her books and looked across the room.

"If he only knew," she said under her breath--"if he only knew that I
was practically sent to Coventry--that none of the nice girls will speak
to me. But never mind; I won't tell him. Nothing would induce me to
trouble him on the subject."

CHAPTER II.

HIGH LIFE AND LOW LIFE.

Amongst the many girls who attended the Great Shirley School was one who
was known by the name of Cassandra Weldon. She was rapidly approaching
the proud position of head girl in the school. She had entered the
Shirley School when quite a little child, had gone steadily up through
the different classes and the various removes, until she found herself
nearly at the head of the sixth form. She was about to try for a
sixty-pound scholarship, renewable for three years; if she got it she
would go to Holloway College, and eventually support herself and her
mother. Mrs. Weldon was the widow of a man who in his time had a very
successful school for boys, and she herself had been a teacher long ago
in the Great Shirley School. Cassandra and her mother, therefore, were
from the very first surrounded by scholarship; they belonged, so to
speak, to the scholastic world.

Mrs. Weldon could scarcely talk of anything else. Evening after evening
she would question her daughter eagerly with regard to this
accomplishment and the other, to this change or that, to this chance
which Cassandra might have and to the other. The girl was extremely
clever, with a sort of all-round talent which was most remarkable; for
in addition to many excellent accomplishments, she was distinctly
musical. Her musical talent very nearly amounted to genius. If in the
future she could not play in public, she resolved at least to earn her
living as a music teacher. Mrs. Weldon hoped that Cassandra would do
more than this; and, to tell the truth, the girl shared her mother's
dreams. Besides music, she had worked very hard at botany, at French and
German, and at English literature. She would be seventeen on her next
birthday, and it was against the rules for any girl to remain at the
Great Shirley School aft