So Jane spent the rest of the afternoon in doing little services for her governess by way of consolation for her disappointment; for now there would be only two scholarship girls instead of three. Her friends, Elsie and Mary, were very sorry, and did what they could to console her, but it was not easy to do this, for they had been working and studying for some months with this in view, and now to fail so completely—as Jane knew she had done—was a very bitter disappointment to her, and would be to her mother also, she felt sure.
She was an only child, and her mother was a widow, and, of course, anxious that her daughter should distinguish herself.
"She will be vexed that I am such a dolt," said Jane bitterly.
"Now, Jane, I think you ought to be fair, even to yourself, and it is not fair to call yourself names that you don't deserve."
"What is that you are talking about?" suddenly asked a voice behind them; and turning, the girls saw Mrs. Holmes.
"I was speaking about Jane having to give up the examination," said Elsie. "I heard governess say, that it was not because Jane was not as clever as either of us, but because she was not so strong; and because she had sat closely at the work in the morning, she could not grasp the subject in the afternoon—not because she did not know as much about it as we did, but because she was not strong enough to bear the second strain in one day."
"Then why should she set you the second task on the same day?" said the widow, who was evidently inclined to think her daughter had been unfairly treated, if she had failed in this preliminary examination.
"You see, we should have to work all day in the real examination," interposed Mary, "and so governess wanted us to try how we could do the same work at school."
"Ah! I see. And so you have failed, Jane! Well, I am very sorry," said her mother.
And the tone in which she spoke brought the tears to Jane's eyes again; for only she knew how her mother had counted upon her being able to try for this scholarship, and being able to win it too.