Again they sat and pondered the questions over, but this afternoon they did not seem so clear—at least to one of the girls—as the morning paper had been; and the teacher at the other end of the room saw that Jane Holmes spent more time biting the end of her penholder than using it in the usual way. But she took no notice; and the others wrote on until the first hour was up, and then the governess came to see how much was done.
Elsie Winn and Mary Nicholls had made very fair progress, she saw; but poor Jane was trembling with excitement, and had not written half a dozen lines.
"My dear, you must give it up," said her governess, kindly, "I was afraid whether you would be able to manage it."
"But—I—I—" and then the poor girl burst into tears.
And her governess took her hand and led her from the room, amid the dead silence of the rest, who wondered what could have happened to this scholarship girl.
The governess did not speak for a minute or two, but let the tears have their way, and then she said, "Come, come, Jane, no harm has been done. I was half afraid that you would not be able to go through an examination like this, and so I thought it would be best to try you first. Does your head ache?"
The girl shook her head. "I don't know how I feel," she whispered.
"But you did not clearly understand the questions on the paper, I suppose, as you had written so little."
"I can't tell how it was, for we had done some of that in class only yesterday; and yet I felt so stupid I could not remember a word about it."
"Never mind, my dear. No harm has been done; this is only a little trial beforehand, and is sufficient to shew that you are not strong enough to go through an examination. For, as you saw, this subject is not strange to you, and yet you have failed to grasp the meaning of the questions set before you, and which I feel sure at another time you would not find so difficult."