and powder before me was somewhat alarming to my female timidity. I hear
now the man's startled "I beg your pardon, ma'am."

"I have come by appointment," I returned, with as much dignity as I
could summon under the trying circumstances; "will you inform your
mistress, Mrs. Morton, that I have come about the nurse's situation?"

Of course, he was looking at me from head to foot. In spite of the
disguising plainness of my dress, I suppose the word gentlewoman was
clearly stamped upon me. Heaven forbid that under any circumstances
that brand, sole heritage of my dead parents, should ever be effaced.
Then he opened the door of a charming little waiting-room, and civilly
enough bade me seat myself, and for some minutes I was left alone. I
think nearly a quarter of an hour elapsed before he reappeared with the
message that his mistress was now disengaged and would see me. I
followed the man as closely as I could through the long hall and up the
wide staircase; not for worlds would I have owned that a certain
shortness of breath, unusual in youth, seemed to impede me. At the top,
I found myself in a handsome corridor, communicating with two
drawing-rooms of noble dimensions, as they call them in advertisements,
and certainly it was a princely apartment that I entered. A lady was
writing busily at a small table at the further end of the room. As the
man spoke to her, she did not at once raise her head or turn round; she
was evidently finishing a note. A minute later she laid aside her pen
and came towards me.

"I am sorry that I could not attend to you at once, and yet you were
very punctual," she began, in a pleasant, well-modulated voice, and then
she stopped and regarded me with unfeigned surprise.

She was a very lovely young woman, with an indescribable matronly air
about her that spoke of the mother. She would have been really quite
beautiful but for a certain worn look, often seen in women of fashion;
and when she spoke there was a sweetness and simplicity of manner that
was most winning.

"Pardon me," with a shade of perplexity in her eyes, "but I suppose my
servant was right in stating that you had come by appointment in answer
to my advertisement?"

"Yes, madam," I returned, readily; for her slight nervousness put me at
my ease. "I have your letter here."

"And you are really applying for the nurse's situation--the upper nurse,
I mean; for, of course, there is an under nurse kept. I hope" (colouring
a little