“Chuck it!” and he frowned gloomily. Presently he glanced up.
“Look here, Paddy!” he said. “If you get through your exam, I’m hanged if I don’t buck up, and get through mine, too.”
“You’d better begin working to-night,” she answered, “for I mean to pass,” and she shut her lips with a determination that spoke volumes.
And she did pass too—one of the three girls out of the whole number who had only worked for six months, and there was great rejoicing in the little jerry-built villa. Eileen went with her to the hall where the examination was held, and waited all the time she was there. Before Paddy appeared Basil joined her.
“It matters a good deal to me,” he told Eileen, “because if she passes I’ve got to start working to pass too.”
When Paddy came her eyes shone so, there was no occasion to ask her anything.
“Oh, Eileen,” she said, “do you think I might dance a jig right here! Faith! and indaid!—I’m that plaized—!”
Basil was pleased too, though he would have thought it bad form to show it too much.
“Let’s go and have a beano,” he said. “We’ll dine at the Trocadero and then go to Daly’s.”
“Oh, but I must rush home and tell mother.”