et it."

"And I must get it," pursued Mary, "and yet perhaps it means a little
less to me than it does to you and Florence. Florence is the one
likely to win it, I am sure."

Kitty's face turned white again and her little hand trembled.

"I must get it," she said, in a restless voice. "I don't think I am
selfish--I try not to be, and I would do anything for you, Mary, and
anything for Florence; but--but I can't give up the Scholarship: it
means too much."

She shivered slightly.

At that moment Florence entered the room. She sat down at her desk,
unlocked it, and took out her papers. She was just about to commence
her study--for the Scholarship study was all extra, and had to be done
in odd hours and moments--when, glancing up, she met the disturbed and
questioning gaze of Kitty Sharston.

"Look here," said Kitty, "we three are alone now; let us have a good
talk, just once, if never again. Why do you want to get the
Scholarship, Mary? Why?"

"Why do I want to get it?" said Mary.

"Oh, I wish to work now; if you mean to discuss that point I had better
leave the room," said Florence.

"No, no, do stay, Flo; I won't be more than a moment. I want to
understand things, that's all," said Kitty. "Please, Mary, say why is
the Scholarship of great importance to you."

"Well, for several reasons," replied Mary. "I am not like you,
Florence, and I am not like you, Kitty. I have got both a father and
mother. My father is a clergyman; there are nine other children
besides me--I am the third. It was extremely difficult for father to
send me to this expensive school, but he felt that education was the
one thing necessary for me. Father is a very advanced, liberal-minded
man; he is before his time, so everyone says; but mother does not think
it necessary that girls should know too much. Mother thinks that a
girl ought to be purely domestic; she is very particular about
needlework, and she would like every girl to be able to make a shirt
well, and to be able to cook and preserve, and know a little about
gardening, and know a great deal about keeping a house in perfect
order. But father says, and very rightly, that every girl cannot
marry, and that the girls who do not marry cannot want to know a great
deal about keeping a house in order, and that such girls, unless they
have fortunes left to them, will have to earn their own living. Of
course, there are very few openings for women, and most women have to
te