gaged.

Mrs Trimble was disengaged, and opened the door herself. Jeffreys
beheld a stoutish harmless-looking woman, with a face by no means
forbidding, even if it was decidedly unintellectual.

"Well, young man," said she. She had been eating, and, I regret to say,
had not finished doing so before she began to speak.

"Can I see Mrs Trimble, please?" asked Jeffreys, raising his hat. The
lady, finding her visitor was a gentleman, hastily wiped her mouth and
answered rather lest brusquely.

"I am the lady," said she.

"Excuse me," said Jeffreys, "I called to ask if you were in want of an
assistant teacher. I heard that you were."

"How did you hear that, I wonder? I suppose he's a friend of that
Fison. Yes, young man, I am in want of an assistant."

"I should do my best to please you, if you would let me come," said
Jeffreys. And then, anxious to avoid the painful subject of his
character, he added, "I have not taught in a school before, and I have
no friends here, so I can't give you any testimonials. But I am well up
in classics and pretty good in mathematics, and would work hard, ma'am,
if you would try me."

"Are you a steady young man? Do you drink?"

"I never touch anything but water; and I am quite steady."

"What wages do you expect?"

"I leave that to you. I will work for nothing for a month till you see
if I suit you."

Mrs Trimble liked this. It looked like a genuine offer.

"Are you good-tempered and kind to children?" she asked.

"I am very fond of little boys, and I always try to keep my temper."

His heart sank at the prospect of other questions of this kind. But
Mrs Trimble was not of a curious disposition. She knew when she liked
a young man and when she didn't, and she valued her own judgment as much
as anybody else's testimonials.

"You mustn't expect grand living here," she said.

"I was never used to anything but simple living," said he.

"Very well, Mr --"

"Jeffreys, ma'am."

"Mr Jeffreys, we'll try how we get on for a month; and after that I can
offer you a pound a month besides your board."

"You are very kind," said Jeffreys, to whom the offer seemed a
magnificent one. "I am ready to begin work at once."

"That will do. You'd better begin now. Come this way to the
schoolroom."

CHAPTER SIX.

GALLOWAY HOUSE.

My business-like readers have, I dare say, found fault with me for
representing a business conference on which so much depended as having