"Oh, Aunt Maria, I'm a human girl! Of _both_!" cried Darsie, laughing. "Education first, of course, because of the result, and all it will mean afterwards, but if you want the truth, I shouldn't be so keen if it wasn't for the fun! We know a girl who's just come down, and it sounds such a lovely life... I'd work hard; I love work, and when there is any on hand there's no peace for me till it's done; but _wouldn't_ I just play, too! It would be the time of my life. Oh, Aunt Maria, when I look at the governesses at school, and think that I'm going to be like that all my days, it _does_ seem hard that I shouldn't have just two or three years _first_ of the life I want!" The words, the tone, both bore a touch of real pathos; nevertheless Lady Hayes smiled, as if, so far from being pained by the sad prospect, she found something amusing in the contemplation. "It is a mistake to look too far ahead in life, but of course if you contemplate teaching, you ought to be thoroughly equipped." She was silent for a moment, gazing thoughtfully through the window. Then in a level, perfectly commonplace voice she continued: "I shall be pleased, my dear, to defray the expenses of your course at Newnham..." The manner in which our great ambitions in life meet their realisation is always and inevitably other than we have imagined. Sometimes so many years have passed by since the dreaming of the cherished plans, that the eager spirit is transformed into a wearied and dispirited being, to whom fulfilment brings no joy; sometimes it comes freighted with complications which rob it of half its zest; sometimes it brings no charm at all, but only bitterness and disappointment; and again--oh, often again, thank God for His mercies!--it comes at the moment of hopelessness, of renunciation, dazzling the eyes and heart with a very incredulity of joy. Those few quiet words in an old woman's voice transformed for Darsie Garnett the whole path ahead, making what had seemed a far-away vision become a solid, tangible fact. Quietly, prosaically, without any nourish of trumpets, the great prize of life had been handed into her grasp. She sat motionless, staring with distended eyes, while Lady Hayes continued to speak in calm, even tones.