ready, else I wouldn't have come to
you, but--"

"Never mind, Joe. There's no time like the present--go on."

Thus encouraged, Joe explained his circumstances and desires. When he
had ended, Edgar remained silent for some minutes.

"Joe," he said at length, "you used to be fond of gardening. Have you
forgotten all about it?"

"Why, not quite, sir, but--"

"Stay--I'll come back in a few minutes," said Edgar, rising hastily, and
going into the house.

In a few minutes he returned with his wife.

"Joe," said he, "Mrs Berrington has something to say to you."

"Mr Baldwin," said Aileen, with a peculiar smile, "I am greatly in want
of a gardener. Can you tell me where I am likely to find one, or can
you recommend one?"

Joe, who was a quick-witted fellow, replied with much gravity:--

"No Miss--ma'am, I mean--I can't."

"That's a pity," returned Aileen, with a little frown of perplexity; "I
am also much in want of a cook--do you know of one?"

"No, ma'am," said Joe, "I don't."

"What a stupid, unobservant fellow you must be, Joe," said Edgar, "not
to be able to recommend a cook or a gardener, and you living, as I may
say, in the very midst of such useful personages. Now, Aileen, _I_ can
recommend both a cook and a gardener to you."

"You see, ma'am," interrupted Joe, with profound gravity, and an
earnestness of manner that quite threw his questioners off their guard,
"this is an occasion when you may learn a valuable lesson at the outset
of wedded life, so to speak--namely, that it is much safer an' wiser,
when you chance to be in a difficulty, to apply to your husband for
information than to the likes of me; you see, he's ready with what you
want at a moment's notice."

Aileen and Edgar were upset by this; they both laughed heartily, and
then the former said:--

"Now, Mr Baldwin, we won't beat any longer about the bush. We have not
succeeded in getting a cook, being in the meantime obliged to content
ourselves with a temporary loan of the green-grocer's wife, and of Miss
Pritty's small domestic; therefore I want to engage _your_ wife, who is
at present, I believe, open to an engagement. We are also unprovided
with a man to tend our garden, look after our pony, and help me in the
missionary work, in which I hope immediately to be engaged in this town.
Do you accept that situation?"

Aileen said this with such an earnest irresistible air, that Joe Baldwin
struck his colours on the spot, and said, "