hat your speech sounds a
little odd."

"Slang!" said Margaret, only partly relieved. "Is that not what
schoolboys talk?"

"Schoolboys and others," said Eleanor, with a laugh. "But don't worry,"
she added. "It is quite in keeping with your new character as a governess
that you should not be slangy, so do not put yourself to the trouble of
learning any."

"You have said several things that I did not understand," said Margaret
thoughtfully, "were they slang?"

"Very probably; what were they?"

"Oh! I do not know that I can remember them quite all, but you said a
minute ago that my education was miles behind yours; what did that mean?"

"Inferior to yours," Eleanor said promptly. "That's hardly slang. It
explains itself really, and so you will find with most of the things I
have said. But, perhaps, if you hear any expressions of that sort from
the young Danvers and don't understand them, it will be better not to ask
their meaning. You see, you are supposed to have lived in a girl's school
for the last three years and to have all the slang vocabulary at your
fingers' ends, so that if you go asking what every common or garden slang
expression means you will give us both away with a pound of tea."

"I understand," said Margaret meekly, "and I will not ask." And she made
good her promise by forbearing to inquire what "common" or "garden"
meant when used in that connection, and what bearing a pound of tea had
on the question.

"By the way," said Eleanor, "it has just occurred to me that we ought
to keep any photographs we have of our parents safely locked away. I
must be especially careful, for Mrs. Murray, as an old friend of your
grandfather's, might, if she saw the photographs of my father and mother,
recognise the fact that they were not yours."

"The only portraits I have of my father and my mother are contained in
this locket," said Margaret, as she drew an old leather case from her bag
and pressed the spring. Within lay a dull gold locket richly chased on
one side, and having the monogram "M" beautifully worked in seed pearls
on the other. Inside were two portraits painted on ivory, one of
Margaret's father and one of her mother.

"My mother had these especially painted for me," Margaret said, "but I
have never worn the locket. It is too big."

"Yes, it is too big to wear," Eleanor said; "but oh!" as she took the
case from Margaret's hand, "what a beautiful string of pearls!"

The locket fitted into a bed o