choose! The thing is so startling and novel that I am inclined to
accept. I should very much dislike to be on the road after dark, and if
you have planned to stay here to-night, and if it will not be much
trouble--"

"Say not another word," cried Lodloe; "project your mind into to-morrow
morning, and behold a wagon-load of willing maidens at the door of the
inn."

When Mrs. Cristie and the baby and an elderly woman who lived in
Lethbury, a village two miles beyond the Squirrel Inn, had started on
their journey, Walter Lodloe set about the task he had undertaken. It
was still hot, and the Romney streets were dusty, and after an hour or
two of inquiry, walking, and waiting for people who had been sent for,
Lodloe found that in the whole village there was not a female from
thirteen to seventy-three who would think of such a thing as leaving her
home to become nurse-maid to a city lady. He went to bed that night a
good deal chagrined, and not in the least knowing what he was going to
do about it.

In the morning, however, the thing to do rose clear and plain before
him.

"I can't go to her and tell her I've failed," he said to himself. "A
maid must be got, and I have undertaken to get one. As there is nobody
to be had here, I must go back to the city for one. There are plenty of
them there."

So when the early morning boat came along he took passage for the
nearest railroad station on the river, for he wished to lose no time on
that trip.

The elderly lady who was going to Lethbury took a great interest in Mrs.
Cristie, who was to be her only fellow-passenger. She was at the hotel
with her carpet-bag and her paper bundle some time before the big
spring-wagon was ready to start, and she gave earnest attention to the
loading thereon of Mrs. Cristie's trunk and the baby-carriage. When they
were on their way the elderly woman promptly began the conversation:

"I think," said she to Mrs. Cristie, "that I've seed you before."

"Perhaps so," said the other; "I was in this region three years ago."

"Yes, yes," said the elder woman; "I thought I was right. Then you had a
husband and no child. It now looks as if you had a child and no
husband."

Mrs. Cristie informed her that her surmise was correct.

"Well, well," said the elderly woman; "I've had 'em both, and it's hard
to say which can be spared best, but as we've got nothin' to do with the
sparin' of 'em, we've got ter rest satisfied. After all, they're a good
deal