"Oh! Hurrah for St. Chad"s! She"s actually won!"
The wild delight of the Chaddites at this most marvellous and unexpected achievement was beyond all bounds. They cheered themselves nearly hoa.r.s.e, and waved their handkerchiefs in the exuberance of their joy. To have gained the Atalanta race was a score for their house which, added to their previous cricket successes, would place it on the highest pinnacle of the athletic records of the year.
"And to think that my delicate Janie should be capable of such a feat!"
exclaimed Mrs. Henderson, who had watched the contest with hardly less excitement than the Chaddites themselves. "Chessington has been the making of her, and I cannot thank you enough, Miss Cavendish, for your care of her general health. She is another girl from what she was two years ago. The doctor always told me that plenty of exercise would be her salvation, but I could never persuade her to run about at home."
"I am as delighted as you at the change," declared Miss Cavendish.
"Janie has shown us quite a new phase to-day, and we shall take care that she keeps up to this standard."
Janie herself, panting and flushed with victory, heard the applause almost as in a dream. It was sweet to her ears, yet it was not the reward for which she had striven. Her eager gaze searched down the long line of clapping girls till she found Honor"s face. For a moment their eyes met, but in that one swift glance she read all she wished to learn, and could interpret without the medium of language her friend"s unspoken thoughts: "It was a bargain. You have kept your part of it, and I will keep mine."
The Honor who returned to Ireland next day was indeed changed from the one who had left home in disgrace only thirteen weeks before--so much more thoughtful, sympathetic, and considerate, with such higher ideals and n.o.bler aspirations, that she scarcely seemed the same: an Honor who could tread softly in her mother"s room, and give the required tenderness to that dear one who was to be spared so short a time to her; an Honor who, while keeping all her old love of fun, could forget self, and turn her merriment into sunshine for others. Character is a plant of slow growth, and she was not yet all she might be; but she had set her foot on the upward ladder, and whether at school, or at home, or in after years, life to her would always mean a conscious effort towards better things.
It seemed to her as if she had been away years, instead of only three months, when she and Dermot (who had pa.s.sed his examination for a Naval cadetship) drove from Ballycroghan along the well-known road to Kilmore. The villagers stood at their cabin doors waving a greeting; her father, and actually her mother too, were waiting for her on the Castle steps when she arrived; and her four elder brothers had collected all the dogs of the establishment to join in a warm, if somewhat uproarious reception.
"I believe everything looks glad to see me," said Honor, "the very house, and the trees, and the birds, and the flowers in the garden! I"m going to have the most glorious holidays, and enjoy every hour of them.
It feels almost worth while to have been thirteen weeks at Chessington, for the joy of such a coming home again!"