"There ain't as far as I'm aware. There's old Mrs Johnston, but she ain't blind; she has the very sharpest of eyes that were ever set into anybody's head. She's crool, too, crool, the way she snaps you up. She used to have a lady to read to her, but that lady has gone to Ameriky to be married. She went a week ago, and they say Mrs Johnston almost cried, crool as she used to be to Miss Palliser. Now, if you really wanted to--" "But I do; I do," said Nesta. "I want to very badly indeed. May I go to see her? What is her address?" "What ails her is rheumatism. She can't stir without screeching out loud, and she wants some one to bolster her up. Not that I think much of you myself, but anyhow you might as well go and see." "Would she like me to go and see her to-day?" "Bless you!" said Mrs Hogg, "on the Sawbath? Not a bit of it. She'd never give you nothing to do if you went and broke in on her Sunday rest. It's church with her, as far as church indoors can be church, and she wouldn't see you if you called fifty times. But you might go to-morrow, if you so liked it." CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT. APPLYING FOR A SITUATION. On the morrow between twelve and one o'clock, Nesta, who had no best clothes to put on, but who had to make the best of what she stood up in, as Mrs Hogg expressed it, started on her mission of inquiry to Mrs Johnston's. Mrs Johnston lived in the high street. It was not much of a street, for Souchester was quite a tiny place; but still there were a few houses, and three or four shops, and amongst those houses was one with a hall door painted yellow, and pillars painted green. In that house lived Mrs Johnston. Nesta's whole horizon, every scrap of her future, seemed now to be centred in Mrs Johnston. She had lain awake a good part of the night thinking about her, and making her plans. If Mrs Johnston would pay her--say ten shillings a week, she could easily manage to live quite well. She would still board with the Hoggs and take her food with them. She would soon get accustomed to the red herrings and to the half of Mrs Hogg's bed. She would soon get accustomed to the boys, who could only articulate, as far as she was concerned, the words "Hooray" and "Hurroa." In fact she would get accustomed to anything, and she would stay there until her family, tired out with looking for her, would cease to trouble their heads. By-and-by perhaps they would be sorry, and they would hold out the olive branch, and she would go home, but that time was a long way off. Meanwhile all her future would depend on Mrs Johnston. She reached the house and rang the bell. The house was not pretty, but it seemed to be immaculately neat. A girl as neat as the house itself presently opened the door. When she saw Nesta, she said: "My missus can't see anybody to-day," and was about to slam the door in Nesta's face, when that young lady adroitly slipped her foot in.