argued the rent
was too high, till I told'm we'd let a room an' make it up that way,
but what with this, an' what with that, we ain't had any boarders
exceptin' now an' then some friend of himself out of a job, or one o'
the girls, livin' out in the houses where I work, gettin' bounced
suddent, an' in want of a bed, an' none of 'em ever paid us a cent or
was asked for it."

"Well, if I could get a position as teacher or governess, I'd soon be
able to pay back what you've laid out for me, and more besides, and--In
the houses where you work, are there any children who need a governess?
Any young girls who need a tutor? That's what I wanted to ask you,
Martha."

Mrs. Slawson deliberated in silence for a moment.

"There's the Livingstons," she mused, "but they ain't any childern. Only
a childish brother-in-law. He's not quite _all there,_ as you might say.
It'd be no use tryin' to learn him nothin', seein' he's so
odd--seventy-odd--an' his habits like to be fixed. Then, there's the
Farrands. But the girls goes to Miss Spenny's school, an' the son's at
Columbia. It might upset their plans, if I was to suggest their givin'
up where they're at, an' havin' you. Then there's the Grays, an' the
Granvilles, an' the Thornes. Addin' 'em all together for childern,
they'd come to about half a child a pair. Talk about your race suicide!
They say they 'can't afford to have childern.' You can take it from me,
it's the poor people are rich nowadays. _We_ can afford to have
childern, all right, all right. Then there's Mrs. Sherman--She's got one
boy, but he--Radcliffe Sherman--well, he's a limb! A reg'lar young
villain. You couldn't manage _him_. Only Lord Ronald can manage
Radcliffe Sherman, an' he--"

"Lord Ronald?" questioned Claire, when Mrs. Slawson's meditation
threatened to become static.

"Why, he's Mrs. Sherman's brother, Mr. Frank Ronald, an' no real lord
could be handsomer-lookin', or grander-behavin', or richer than him.
Mrs. Sherman is a widder, or a divorcy, or somethin' stylish like that.
Anyhow, I worked for her this eight years an' more--almost ever since
Radcliffe was born, an' I ain't seen hide nor hair o' any Mr. Sherman
yet, an' they never speak o' him, so I guess he was either too good or
too bad to mention. Mr. Frank an' his mother lives with Mrs. Sherman,
an' what Mr. Frank says _goes_. His word is law. She thinks the world
of'm, an' well she may, for he's a thorerbred. The way he treats me, for
instants. You