Except for the ordinary practices which formed part of the school curriculum, Winona was obliged for the present to appoint Bessie Kirk as her deputy-Captain.  She had no time herself to train juniors, to act referee, or to stand watching tennis sets.  It meant a great sacrifice to relinquish these most congenial duties, but she knew Miss Bishop and Miss Goodson approved, and she promised herself to return to them all the more heartily when the examination should be over.  She would ask Bessie wistfully for reports of the progress of various stars who were in training, and managed to keep in touch with the games, though she could not always participate in them.

“Wait till June’s over, and I’m emancipated!  Then won’t I have the time of my life!” she announced.  “Thank goodness the match with Binworth isn’t till July 21st!”

The weeks of strenuous work passed slowly by.  The weather was warm and sultry, with frequent thunderstorms, not a favorable atmosphere for study.  Garnet flagged palpably, and lost her roses.  To Winona the time seemed interminable.  The task she had undertaken of helping her friend was a formidable one.  It needed all her courage to persevere.  Sometimes she longed just for an evening to throw it up, and go and play tennis instead, but every hour was important to Garnet, and must not be lost.  Winona often had to set her teeth and force herself to resist the alluring sound of the tennis in the next-door garden, where she had a standing invitation to come and play, and it took all the will power of which she was capable to focus her attention on the examination subjects.  She tried not to let Garnet see how much the effort cost her; the latter was sensitive, and painfully conscious of being a burden.  Miss Beach dosed both the girls with tonics, and insisted upon their taking a certain amount of exercise.

“Work by all means, but don’t over-work,” was her recommendation.  “There’s such a thing as bending a bow until it breaks.  I don’t like to see such white cheeks!”

The examination was for entering Dunningham University, and must be taken at that city.  The Governors of the Seaton High School had offered a scholarship, tenable for three years, to whichever of their candidates, obtaining First Class honors, appeared highest on the list of passes.  They had arranged with the examiners to place the names of the successful candidates in order of merit and on the receipt of the results they would award their exhibition.  If no one obtained First Class honors, the offer would be withdrawn, and held over until another year.

Several of the girls were well up in their work, and seemed likely to have a chance of winning.  Linda Fletcher had the advantage of two years in the Sixth, Agatha James was undoubtedly clever, and Beatrice Howell, though not brilliant, possessed a steady capacity for grind.  With three such formidable rivals Garnet’s heart might very reasonably fail her.  The doctor’s prohibition was a most serious handicap for invaluable as her chum’s help proved, it was not so effective as being able to use her own eyes.  Sometimes she lost courage altogether, and it needed Winona’s most dogged determination to keep her mind fixed unwaveringly upon the end in view.