Miss Roscoe, for even if
it did not win the prize, it would surely be highly commended. And she
had made herself a party to a fraud, for however much she might try
to whitewash her act, she knew she had no right to allow Netta to use
her work.

"Dad would despise me! Oh, what an abominable mix and muddle it all
is! And I was going to start the New Year so straight!" wailed Gwen.

Netta in the meantime had put the essay away in her locker with the
utmost satisfaction. She felt she had decidedly scored. Neither
brilliant nor a hard worker, she had no opportunity of distinguishing
herself in the Form under ordinary circumstances: here chance had
flung into her hand the very thing she wanted. It would not take long
to copy the sixteen pages of rather sprawling writing, then "Thomas
Carlyle" would be her own.

"And a surprise for everyone!" she chuckled complacently. "Of course,
it's rather dear--a whole pound! But--yes, most undoubtedly it's worth
it!"

To Gwen, not the lightest part of the business was that she was faced
with the horrible necessity of writing another essay. Only two days
remained, so time pressed. It was impossible to look up any subject
adequately, so she chose Dickens, as being an author whose books she
knew fairly well, and by dint of much brain racking and real hard
labour contrived to give some slight sketch of his life and an
appreciation of his genius. She was painfully conscious, however, that
the result was poor, the style slipshod, and the general composition
lacking both in unity and finish. She pulled a long face as she signed
her name to it.

"That isn't going to do much for you, Gwen Gascoyne," she said to
herself. "It won't even get 'commended'. Bah! I'm sick of the whole
thing!"

She felt more sick still on the day when Miss Roscoe returned the
essays.

"I had hoped the average standard would be higher," commented the
Principal. "Very few girls have treated the subject in any really
critical spirit. There is only one paper worthy of notice--that on
Thomas Carlyle by Netta Goodwin, and it is so excellent that it stands
head and shoulders above all the others. I am very pleased, Netta,
very pleased indeed, that you should have done so well. Your essay is
carefully thought out and nicely expressed, and is evidently the
result of much painstaking work. You thoroughly deserve the prize
which I offered, and I have written your name in the book."

The Fifth Form gasped as Netta, with a