isappeared on the spot.

"You see," she said, "you are the first girl I have ever spoken to in all
my life, and so, of course, I should always remember you."

"The first girl you have ever spoken to!" ejaculated the other, her eyes
opening to their fullest width. "Oh, come, I can't believe that."

"But you are, that is to say, the very, very first _real_ girl."

The emphasis Margaret laid on the word "real" did not at the moment
strike the other, who was now quite as interested in Margaret as the
latter was in her.

"Look here," she said, "I don't think I can do any more exercises at
present, though it seems wicked waste of time to be talking when I might
be learning something. But my poor brain has taken in all it can at
present, and I am willing to rest it awhile by talking to you. Come here
and sit down, and we'll talk."

"I have been desirous of talking to you some moments past," said
Margaret, flushing with pleasure at the suggestion. "But you looked so
busy that I did not venture to interrupt you."

An involuntary smile crossed the other girl's face as she listened to
Margaret's prim little way of speaking.

"I know, and I was rather cross about the bag, wasn't I? but I had just
got hold of the tail of a rather difficult sentence and it gave a wriggle
and vanished when you spoke. However, please don't look so dreadfully
sorry. I made a successful grab at it a few minutes afterwards. Now shall
we tell each other our names. Mine is Eleanor----"

She stopped short in amazement, for Margaret had sprung to her feet and
was gazing at her with eyes that fairly shone with excitement.

"Eleanor!" she cried, "Eleanor! Oh, no, not really and truly!"

"Why not? Don't you like the name?"

"Like it! Why, of course I am very, very fond of it. It is the name of
some one I love very much. I suppose your other name is not Humphreys, is
it? But it would be really too much if it were."

"It's not. Eleanor Kathleen Carson is my full name."

"Eleanor Kathleen Carson," repeated Margaret when her excitement had
calmed somewhat.

"It's a lovely name, though, of course, it ought by rights to have been
Eleanor Humphreys. I know now the reason why I liked you so much the
moment I saw you."

"Not the first moment," said Eleanor, with twinkling eyes. "You thought
me horrid the first moment you saw me, and scuttled from the room as hard
as you could."

"No, I liked you from the first," Margaret repeated firmly. "Only I was