“I--I don’t know, Madam. I have never been employed as nursery governess.” “My husband allows me forty pounds a year for the salary of the governess,” said Mrs. Blight. “But, of course, forty pounds ought to get a governess with the very best of references. You are inexperienced, as you confess. Now I will take the risk of you turning out bad, if you should decide to remain with me as governess to my five children, at a salary of twenty pounds a year, board and washing, lights and fuel, included.” It was “Hobson’s choice--that or none”--to poor Lally. Twenty pounds a year, and to be sheltered and fed and warmed besides, seemed very liberal after her recent terrible struggle with the vulture of starvation. “I will accept it, Mrs. Blight,” she said, her voice trembling--“that is, if you will take me when you know that I have only the clothes I stand in, and that for a few weeks I shall need my pay weekly to provide me with decent garments.” “Oh, as to that,” said Mrs. Blight, “your clothes are poor, beggarly, I might say. They will have to be improved at once. I will advance you a quarter’s salary, five pounds, if you are quite sure you will use it for clothes, and that you do not intend to cheat me out of my money. You see I always speak plainly. My governesses are not pampered. They have to earn their money, but that you probably expect to do. I don’t know of another lady in Canterbury who would do as I am doing, lending money to a perfect stranger, on a recommendation you may have written yourself. But I am different from other ladies. _I_ am a judge of physiognomy, and am not often deceived in my estimate of people. Why are you out of clothes?” “I have been out of a situation as a teacher for some time,” said Lally. “I have the present addresses of the ladies who signed my recommendation, and I beg you to write to them to assure yourself that I have spoken the truth. The addresses are written on the recommendation itself.” “I noticed them, and shall write this very morning,” declared Mrs. Blight. “Go now for your clothes, and be back to luncheon. I want to introduce you to the children, who are running wild.” She waved her hand, and Lally, with her five pounds in her hand, took her departure. She had found a new home, and one not likely to be pleasant, but it would afford her shelter, and she believed she could bear all things rather than to pass again through the poverty and misery she had known. She little knew that it was the hand of Providence that had brought her to Sandy Lands, and that the acceptance of her present situation was destined to change the entire future current of her existence, and even to affect that of her young husband. CHAPTER XXV. LALLY IN HER NEW SITUATION.