Although, after all, only two would really enter the race, Miriam and Anne.

Nobody else would think of competing with these two brilliant students.
How tired Anne looked! She had done nothing but study of late.

No party had been alluring enough to beguile her from her books.

She had even discontinued her work with Mrs.Gray, and early and late toiled at her studies.
"She will tire herself out," Grace thought, and made a resolution to take Anne with her on a visit to her grandmother's in the country just as soon as the High School doors were closed for the summer.
Miriam was not studying so hard.

But then she never did anything hard.
She simply seemed to absorb, without taking the trouble to plod.