The failures—no, that was too harsh, let him call them shortcomings—on the second potion were rather more subtle than they had been before. Though Miss Dempsey had finished quickly, the steam from her cauldron, where it connected with flesh, had actually caused a small cluster of blemishes to form, suggesting her efforts had not been successful.

Once again,  Miss Oakby's concoction had a bit of particulate remaining in the sample Gideon drew, but seemed otherwise quite servicable. It simply paled ever so slightly in comparison to very good efforts indeed from Misses Clarke and Farris.

"Miss Euphemia Clarke and Miss Matilda Farris," Gideon announced, eyes lingering a beat too long upon the latter, "will both progress to the final round of competition. Nonetheless, you all should feel quite good about your accomplishments today."

After all, Gideon thought, punctuating his words with a smile, it was no small thing to put oneself upon display for all to see.

Matilda Farris Effie Clarke, you will be tagged again when the next round is live!
DEMPSEY 4 | OAKBY 4.5 | CLARKE  5.5 | FARRIS 5.5