With a great effort she pulled herself together.
"It's no use funking!" she thought.

"I'll make as good a shot as I can at things, and if I fail--well, I shall have plenty of companions in misfortune, at any rate!" A pile of foolscap paper with red-ruled margins, a clean sheet of white blotting paper, and a penholder with a new nib lay ready.

Each of the other twenty victims was surveying a supply of similar material.

On the blackboard was chalked the word "Silence." In a dead hush the candidates sat and waited.

Exactly on the stroke of nine Miss Bishop entered and handed a sheaf of printed questions to the teacher in charge, who distributed them round the room.