CHAPTER II

An Entrance Examination


The Seaton High School was a large, handsome brick building exactly
opposite the public park. It had only been erected two years ago, so
everything about it was absolutely new and up-to-date. It supplied a
great need in the rapidly growing city, and indeed offered the best and
most go-ahead education to be obtained in the district.

It was the aim of the school to fit girls for various professions and
careers; there was a classical and a modern side, a department for
domestic economy, and a commercial class for instruction in business
details. Art, music, and nature study were well catered for, and manual
training was not forgotten. As the school was intended to become in time
a center for the county, the Governors had offered two open free
scholarships to be competed for by girls resident in other parts of
Rytonshire, hoping by this means to attract pupils from the country
places round about.

On the morning of September 8th, precisely at 8.35, Winona presented
herself at the school for the scholarship examination. There were twenty
other candidates awaiting the ordeal, in various stages of nervousness
or sangfroid. Some looked dejected, some confident, and others hid their
feelings under a mask of stolidity. Winona joined them shyly. They were
all unknown to one another, and so far nobody had plucked up courage to
venture a remark. It is horribly depressing to sit on a form staring at