'No one is educated now--no woman--who does not go to Newnham, or Girton, or Oxford. No one has any chance of success in teaching who has not taken a place in a Tripos or done something in a University examination.' The Senior Tutor was smiling, but he was only giving her half his attention. 'And what Tripos do you propose to take?' he asked in his bland, superior, lecture-room manner. 'I? Oh, I don't think I shall ever be clever enough to take a Tripos; but I might learn something--a little. I might learn enough to pass the--the--Little----' 'The Little-go?' suggested the Tutor; 'or, more properly speaking, the "Previous."' 'Yes; papa used to talk about the Little-go. He had dreadful difficulty in passing it. I should be quite satisfied if I could pass the Little-go.' 'I don't think you will find any difficulty in passing it,' he said. 'I do not remember that your father had any special difficulty; I was his tutor. He disappointed me in the Tripos. With his great gifts he ought to have done better.' It was Lucy's turn to smile now, and to sigh. 'Poor papa!' she said; 'there was a reason for his failure. Perhaps you did not know.' 'No; I knew of no reason.' 'He had just met my mother, and--and he was in love. She got between him and his mathematics; he could think of nothing but my mother. Oh, if you had known her, you would not have wondered.' The Senior Tutor looked across the table with a new interest in his eyes at the sweet downcast face. If her mother had been like her, he didn't wonder at poor Richard Rae getting only a second class in his Tripos. 'Are you quite sure that you will not fail from the same cause? are you sure that at the momentous time you will not do like your father--that you will not fall in love?' 'No--o,' said Lucy gravely; 'I don't think I shall fall in love. I don't think Girton girls do very often.' 'They do sometimes. They generally end by marrying their coaches.' Lucy looked shocked. 'They can't _all_ marry their coaches.' 'No, not all--only the weak ones. The superior minds never sink to the low level of matrimony.' Lucy was quite sure he was laughing at her. 'I am not likely to need a coach,' she said stiffly; 'I shall never be clever enough to take a Tripos. I shall be content to pass the--the--the "Previous."' She was going to say 'Little-go,' but she remembered he had called it the 'Previous,' and she checked herself in time. 'We shall see. You will have to begin with the "Previous" in any case. You need not take it all at once: there are three parts; you can take them at different times.' 'I should prefer to take them all at once.' 'But if you are going no farther, if you are going to stop at the "Previous," why should you be in such a hurry to get it over?' 'I don't know. It might be as well to get it over; but I have to get into Girton or Newnham first; I don't know that they will have me; and I have to get my uncle's consent.'