--

"'I suppose you'll be leaving to-day or to-morrow, sir.'

"'On the contrary, you are making me so comfortable, that I was going
to ask you to take me on for a few weeks, at any rate.'

"'But it isn't right or fitting that the likes of you should be living
in a cottage such as this. The whole place belongs to you, I'm
thinking.'

"'I suppose it does. But if I come to live here I shall start either
in a cottage, or quite a small house, with a sister of mine who has no
home, poor child! How she would like to join me here, by the way.'

"Mrs. Macdonald played nervously with the string of her apron. I could
see I had appealed to her motherly heart by representing you as a
motherless orphan.

"'I suppose you haven't a second bedroom,' I suggested, following up my
advantage.

"'It's a slip of a thing; not fit for a lady, sir.'

"'After all, ladies are much the same as other women; and my sister
might have the bigger bedroom and I the smaller.'

"'There's my John,' doubtfully.

"'Doesn't he like ladies?'

"'Not all of them, sir,' with a sudden burst of confidence. 'There's
Mrs. Webster; she called here one day to know if I'd take in some of
the washing--and he'd just come in from work,--and she marched into the
kitchen and talked very loud. Though he's deaf he don't like no notice
taken of it; and he told her it 'ud be time enough for me to work when
he was laid by, and then he'd be sorry if I had to do it.'

"'But, of course, if Macdonald does not like us we will leave at once,'
I said, assuming that Mrs. Macdonald had agreed to have you. So you're
to come, Sally; come as quickly as you can. Don't bring much luggage,
for there is nowhere to put it; and pray remember to talk gently to our
host. I cannot see why we should not double the size of this
cottage--put in a bath-room, and get Mrs. Macdonald to do for us; but
this will entirely depend upon your manners, you see. I was preparing
to go out, when I saw a child's invalid carriage barring the entrance
to the gate, and a child's clear voice was giving very impressive
orders about the contents of a certain basket which was to be carried
up to the door.

"'You won't spill them, Nurse. You'll be sure not to spill them;
they're so _very_ ripe they'd burst if you did.'

"'No, darling; I'll carry them as carefully as new-laid eggs.'

"The woman spoke like a lady; her tone was so gentle and refined.

"I was standing at the open door of the cottage,