Mrs. Maclahan shrugged her shoulders.
"She is being made so. The sooner a change is made in the nursery the better. She'll be all right now. Come along, Herbert; we shall never get off. You won't be such a little goose again, will you, Tina?"
She mounted the chestnut and rode away; and Christina walked back to the house with Nurse, feeling shaky and still confused.
Nurse petted and comforted her, and when she saw that she was quite herself again, left her on the nursery sofa whilst she went to Mrs. Hallam's room to talk over the "new mistress."
That day seemed a long one to Christina. She felt as if she were in disgrace. Neither her father or mother came near her, but after the nursery tea was over, Nurse had a message brought to her that she was to go to Mrs. Maclahan. She came back with tears in her eyes, and informed the child that she was going to leave her.
Christina could not and would not believe it.
"I couldn't live, Nurse, without you!" she assured her passionately.
"They say I'm coddling you, and you must be made hardy and strong. They think every child is cut out in the same pattern. Your stepmother is one for fresh air and sport, so she says, and she's going to take you in hand herself. Me, who has nursed you through your teething and vaccination and that terrible attack of whooping-cough, and been a mother and nurse rolled in one for eight years! Me to be turned away with a month's notice, like the kitchen-maid!"
Nurse put her head down into her apron and sobbed bitterly.
Christina gazed at her in horrified wonder. Her little soul rose in protest against such a sentence. Without a thought of fear, with hot cheeks and flashing eyes, she dashed down the stairs into the room that she knew had been prepared for her stepmother. She found her there writing letters, and her father was dictating to her as she wrote.