I had such a chance."

"Well, you have not, so there's no use in fretting about it," replied
Mabel. "They certainly are having a good time, but who will win? I
vote for Florence."

"And I for Kitty," said Alice; "who has a chance beside Kitty? She is
the most brilliant of the three girls, and such a favorite with Sir
John."

"But for that very reason she may have less chance of winning, because
Sir John is a wonderfully just man. Did you ever see anyone so
terribly in earnest as Florence? Her eyes have quite a strained look
at times, and she does not eat half as much as she did; then she gets
such long, long letters from that wonderful aunt of hers. She did not
get those letters at all last term, and her dress is so smart, and she
has such heaps of pocket-money; there is a great change in Florence.
Sometimes I feel that I want her to win, but at other times all my
sympathies are for Kitty."

"No one seems to think of poor Mary Bateman," said Edith King, in a
thoughtful voice, "and yet in reality she is one of the nicest girls in
the school, and if she wins the Scholarship, for she has been telling
me all about it, she is to go to Girton."

"Where in the name of wonder is Girton?" asked Alice Cunningham.

"Oh, it is a College for Women which has been opened near Cambridge."

"Then if I thought I had to go to a College for Women I should be
rather sorry to win the Scholarship," said Mabel Cunningham; "but
there, don't let us talk of it any more. We are to have something of a
half-holiday to-day, for Mrs. Clavering is to take the three lucky ones
to Cherry Court Park."

Florence dressed herself with great care for this expedition. Kitty
had shown her Sir John's letter, and she had felt a queer tingling pain
at her heart as she read it; but then a sort of defiance, which was
growing more and more in her character day by day, arose to her aid,
and she determined that she would not give Sir John one loophole to
find out anything amiss in her conduct.

"We are going to be spied upon, and it is perfectly horrid," she said,
under her breath, "but never mind, I am determined to stand the test."

The day happened to be a lovely one, and Florence looked carefully
through her wardrobe. She finally decided to put on the light summer
silk which Mrs. Aylmer had provided for her. She looked very nice in
that silk, almost pretty, and as all its accompaniments were perfect,
the lace ruffles round the neck, the lace