place for me?"

Mrs McIntyre looked doubtful.

"It's a place for some one; but I doubt it's too hard a place for you."

Christie sent a questioning look to the visitor, who said:

"Well, in some respects it's a hard place. There is plenty to do; but
Mrs Lee is a real gentlewoman, mindful of others, and kind and
pleasant-spoken. I should know; for I have sick-nursed her twice,
besides being there, now and again, when the children have been ill."

"But think upon it. The only nurse, where there's an infant and four
other children as near each other as they can well be. She's not fit
for the like of that," said Mrs McIntyre.

"The eldest is but seven," said Mrs Greenly. "But, for that matter,
Mrs Lee is nurse herself; and Nelly, the housemaid, is a kind-hearted
girl. She might make a trial of it, anyway."

"We'll see what your sister says," said Mrs McIntyre to Christie.
"She'll be round on the Sabbath. Or maybe you might go there and see
her before that time."

Mrs Greenly shook her head.

"But I doubt if I can wait for that. I must see the other girl this
afternoon; and if she should suit the place there would be no more to be
said. What do you think yourself, my girl?"

Christie had been too little accustomed to decide any matter for
herself, to wish to decide this without first seeing her sister. So she
only asked if Mrs Greenly passed near the street where Annie lived.
Not very near, Mrs McIntyre said; but that need not interfere. Barbara
should go with her there, if Mrs Greenly would consent to put off
seeing the other girl till the next morning. Mrs McIntyre could not
take the responsibility of advising Christie to accept the situation.
It was better that her sister should decide. But Christie had decided
in her own mind already. Any place would be better than none. But she
needed Annie's sanction that Effie might be satisfied--and, indeed, that
she might be satisfied herself; for she had little self-reliance.

She saw Annie, who shrank from the thought of Christie's having to
trespass long on Mrs McIntyre's hospitality; and Christie dwelt more on
Mrs Greenly's high praise of Mrs Lee than on the difficulties she
might expect among so many children with insufficient help. So the next
afternoon Christie and her little trunk were set down before the door of
a high stone house in Saint --- Street. She had to wait a while; for
Mrs Greenly, the nurse, for whom she asked, was engaged for the t