"Well, my father says that must not make any difference if we have made up our minds to do a thing.
"'Once begin,' he says, 'go through with it, and do as well as ever you can.'
"That is what I have made up my mind to do, and I don't mean to let anyone frighten me into giving up until it is all over."
Mary was not so sure that she should do this, but she agreed to go with Elsie to the examination until it was over.
After tea they went to see their governess, and tell her what they had done, and how difficult the questions had been.
She quite endorsed Elsie's resolve to go through with it now she had begun, and she said what she could to encourage the girls; but it was easy to see that she was not very hopeful of the result; or that even one of the scholarships would come to her school, dearly as she would like to gain such an honour for it.
The next day passed much as the first had done. Mary would have given up, but that she saw that Elsie was applying herself to solve the difficulties of the sums; and she felt she must do the same, for she and Elsie had learned their lessons together; and, therefore, if Elsie could do the sums, she ought to be able to do them too.
They were glad enough when four o'clock came that day, for they were both very tired from the close application; and Mary was more than ever disposed to give up the struggle, feeling it was quite hopeless to expect that two scholarships would be awarded to one school, and quite sure that Elsie had done some of the questions better than she had; and so she might as well spare herself the mental fatigue the following day.
"But you said you would come with me to the very last," pleaded Elsie; "and there is only one more day now, and then it will be over, and we can have a rest."
So Mary promised, for her friend's sake, to go for this one more day; but she was so tired, that she had given up all hope of winning a scholarship for herself now. Still she would go and keep her friend company, and do the best she could with the questions that were given to her. And so, with this despairing promise, Elsie had to be content.