Thorough determination, close application, did not remove this difficulty, and she was warned by those around her that unless she could make better use for study of the three years yet before her than she had made of those that lay behind her, she could never be a teacher of a very high order.

Of all that this failure meant, Hetty understood more clearly now than when she had wished to live with Mrs.
Kane and be the village schoolmistress.

Loving all that was beautiful and refined in life, she had learned to dread, from another motive than pride, the fate of being thrown upon a lower social level.

And yet this was a fate which seemed now to stare her in the face.
Mr.Enderby, who had of late taken a personal interest in her studies, examining her from time to time on various subjects, said to her: "My little girl, if you do not wake up and work harder I fear you will have to take an inferior position in life to that which I desired for you." Poor Hetty! Was she not wide awake?
So wide awake that when he and all the household were asleep she lay staring her misfortune in the face.
And how could she work harder than she did, weeping in secret over the dry facts that would not leave their mark upon her brain?
Thus it was that life looked dreary to her, and her face was grave and pale.

Phyllis and Nell, who were three and two years older than herself, had begun to talk of the joys which the magic age of eighteen had in store for them.
They would leave off study and go forth into the enjoyment of their youth in a flattering world.