approached Mrs. Cristie, hat in hand, she exclaimed in a
tone which she was not in the habit of using to comparative strangers,
in which category sober reflection would certainly have placed the
gentleman:

[Illustration: "I SUPPOSE THIS IS MRS. CRISTIE."]

"Will you please to tell me what is the meaning of this? Who is that
girl, and where did she come from?"

"Madam," said Lodloe, in a deprecatory tone, "I can scarcely pick up the
courage to say so, but that is the nurse-maid."

"And you brought her to me?" exclaimed Mrs. Cristie.

"I did," he answered.

"Did you get her in Romney?"

"No," said Lodloe; "there wasn't a girl of any sort or kind to be had
there. I was obliged to go to New York for one."

"To New York!" cried the astonished Mrs. Cristie.

"Madam," said Lodloe, "let me propose that we retire a little from the
house. Perhaps her room may be somewhere above us."

And the two having walked a short distance over the lawn, he continued:

"I really believe that I have done a very foolish thing, but having
promised to do you a service I greatly disliked not to keep my word. I
could find no one in Romney, and of course the only way to get you a
girl was to go to New York; and so I went there. My idea was to apply to
one of those establishments where there are always lots of maids of all
grades, and bring one to you. That was the way the matter appeared to
me, and it seemed simple enough. On the ferryboat I met Mrs. Waltham, a
lady I know very well, who is a member of the Monday Morning Club, and a
great promoter of college annexes for girls, and all that sort of thing;
and when I asked her advice about the best intelligence office, she told
me to keep away from all of them, and to go instead to a teachers'
agency, of which she gave me the address, where she said I would be
almost sure to find some teacher who wanted occupation during the
holidays."

"A teacher!" cried Mrs. Cristie.

"Yes," said Lodloe; "and you may be sure that I was as much surprised as
you are. But Mrs. Waltham assured me that a great many women teachers
found it necessary to make money during the summer, and were glad to do
anything, just as college students wait at hotels. The more she talked
about it the more she got interested in it, and the matter resulted in
her going to the agency with me. Mrs. Waltham is a heavy swell in
educational circles, and as she selected this girl herself I said not a
word about it, except to hurry