ut that very little made the Danvers laugh, and when she
came to think it over, she arrived at the right conclusion that she found
this surprising, not because they laughed more than other young people,
but because she had been used to the society of people who laughed so
very much less. But anything seemed to serve with them as a cause for
laughter. If the joke were a good one it evoked hearty laughter, if it
were a bad one the perpetrator was laughed at; and if fresh jokes, good
or bad, ran short, there was seemingly an endless store of old ones to be
drawn upon, supplemented by catchwords and phrases from the latest
musical comedy. These, of course, were even more unintelligible to
Margaret than the rest of the queer, scrappy talk that made up the bulk
of their conversation; but as she made no attempt to share in it, the
fact that even their most everyday slang expressions were strange to her,
passed unnoticed. For the most part, however, they were too much occupied
with their own affairs to have much attention to spare for her; and it
dawned upon Margaret, before even that first meal in their society was
ended, that she need not have been afraid that they would bear malice
against her for her outburst of the night before. They were really
scarcely interested enough in her to do that. Under cover of the brisk
chatter that went on round her, she took the opportunity of glancing
round the table and studying the various members of the household.

With the exception of herself they numbered eight, and though there
had been considerably more young people than that present in the
billiard-room last night, she gathered from the conversation that was
going on round her that, during the holidays at least, Mrs. Danvers kept
a sort of open house for all the friends of her own children.

Opposite Margaret, on Geoffrey's other hand, sat Joan Green. Though she
was only fifteen, she looked at least a year older, in spite of the fact
that she wore her hair in a long, thick plait down her back. Margaret,
who was still under the impression that Joan had been flying from the
room in a rage as she came in, and that she had been the means of
soothing her back to a better temper, was a little hurt and puzzled at
the studious way in which Joan's eyes avoided hers. Once when she had
caught their glance for a moment, and had smiled a friendly recognition
into them, she had been rewarded by a cold glare that had quite startled
her. Next to Jo