Mona followed him with her eye, as he turned away, and in another moment saw him at the other end of the room, shaking hands very cordially with Dr Dudley. She turned her back, and, hastily gathering together her pens and coloured chalks, she left the room. Her heart beat fast with apprehension till she reached the open air; and, as she walked up to Regent Street for lunch, she fancied every moment that she heard his step behind her. But she need not have feared. For the three days that the written examination lasted, Dudley was aware of a patch of colour at the opposite side of the hall, where the women sat; but he was too indifferent and preoccupied to investigate its details. He felt so old among those boys and girls; his one wish was to get the examination over, and be done with it. Now that she knew where he sat, Mona had no difficulty in avoiding his short-sighted eyes. In fact, as time went on, she grew bolder, and loved to look on from a distance, while Dudley's fellow-students gathered round and assailed him with a torrent of questions, the moment each paper was over. It was pleasant to see his relations with those lads,--the friendly raillery which they took in such good part. Clearly they looked upon him as a very good fellow, and a mine of wisdom. "You are mere boys to him," thought Mona proudly. "He is willing to play with you; but I am his friend!" Wednesday evening came at last, and with a mingled sense of excitement, and of weariness that amounted to physical pain, Mona went down the steps. Lucy was awaiting her in the street, and they betook themselves to the nearest shop where they could get afternoon tea. "Well," said Lucy, "what is your final judgment?" Mona sighed. "Anatomy, very fair," she said--"morning paper especially; Physiology--between you and me and the lamp-post--the best paper I ever did in my life; Chemistry, safe, I think; Materia Medica--better at least than last time." "_Brava!_" cried Lucy. "Oh, don't! I ought not to have said so much. It is tempting the Fates." "No matter. With a record like that you can afford to tempt the Fates. Oh, Mona, I do hope you have got the Physiology medal!" She raised her teacup. "Here's to Mona Maclean, Gold Medallist in Physiology!" "No, no, no," said Mona. "My paper is not on those lines at all, and the Practical is still to come." "And who is better prepared for that than you, with your private laboratory, and all the rest of it?" "I have often told you that the best work of the world is rarely done with the best instruments." Lucy groaned. "If three days' examination won't keep her from moralising," she said, "it may safely be predicted that nothing will. What a prospect?"