in the compartment, she was
neither upset by the too near contemplation of her daughter, nor by the
aspect of other travellers lunching. Miss Leech, always mindful of her
duties, was making the most of her five hours' journey by endeavouring,
in a low voice, to clear away the haze that hung in her pupil's mind
round the details of her last winter's German studies. "Don't you
remember anything of Professor Smith's lectures, Letty?" she inquired.
"Why, they were all about just this part of Germany, and it makes it so
much more interesting if one knows what happened at the different
places. Stralsund, you know, where we shall be presently, has had a most
turbulent and interesting past."

"Has it?" said Letty. "Well, I can't help it, Leechy."

"No; but my dear, you should try to recollect something at least of what
you heard at the lectures. Have you forgotten the paper you wrote about
Wallenstein?"

"I remember I did a paper. Beastly hard it was, too."

"Oh, Letty, don't say beastly--it really isn't a ladylike word."

"Why, mamma's always saying it."

"Oh, well. Don't you know what Wallenstein said when he was besieging
Stralsund and found it such a difficult task?"

"I suppose he said too that it was beastly hard."

"Oh, Letty--it was something about chains. Now do you remember?"

"Chains?" repeated Letty, looking bored. "Do _you_ know, Leechy?"

"Yes, I still remember that, though I confess that I have forgotten the
greater part of what I heard."

"Then what do you ask me for, when you know I don't know? What did he
say about chains?"

"He said that he'd take the city, if it were rivetted to heaven with
chains of iron," said Miss Leech dramatically.

"What a goat."

"Oh, hush--don't say those horrible words. Where do you learn them? Not
from me, certainly not from me," said Miss Leech, distressed. She had a
profound horror of slang, and was bewildered by the way in which these
weeds of rhetoric sprang up on all occasions in Letty's speech.

"Well, and was it?"

"Was it what, my dear?"

"Chained to heaven?"

"The city? Why, how can a city be chained to heaven, Letty?"

"Then what did he say it for?"

"He was using a metaphor."

"Oh," said Letty, who did not know what a metaphor was, but supposed it
must be something used in sieges, and preferred not to inquire too
closely.

"He was obliged to retire," said Miss Leech, "leaving enormous numbers
of slain on the field."

"Poor beasts. I say, Le