Faith's face grew downcast.
"I'm 'fraid I don' know. Aunt Alice says 'time enough yet' and 'something will come.' Charity and Hope have quite settled themselves. I think I'd rather be a mother with about ten little children, all girls, and mostly babies, that I could nurse. But Hope says that is silly, for you can't earn money when you're nursing babies!"
"Oh, yes, you can," said Lady Melville, touched by this old-fashioned, anxious-faced child; "you can be nurse in a hospital for sick babies, or you can be a governess and look after little children, or a nurse in a private house, or you can help in a holiday home or a convalescent home. If you love little children, you will find lots of places open to you when you grow up."
"Without my being very clever?" questioned Faith.
"Yes," said Lady Melville, "and perhaps you won't have to earn any money at all. Perhaps you will have a husband who will do it for you."
"I am rather frightened of men," confessed Faith, "except Timothy. I'm not a bit frightened of him."
Lady Melville laughed.
"Now we won't think any more of your grown-up life, but of how you are going to enjoy yourself in the country. And I am going to think of this problem of lessons. I know a very nice girl about five miles from here. She used to be a teacher in a big London High School, but she wasn't very strong, and had to come to the country to live. She takes care of her invalid mother, but I believe she would be able to cycle over to you, and give you some lessons every morning. Would you like that? I think I must talk to your Granny about it."
Faith was not sure whether she would like it. And in a moment she looked up into Lady Melville's face rather coaxingly.
"You won't hurry about it too fast, will you, please? For Aunt Alice says we can have holidays till she thinks of something, and it is so lovely not having lessons. The children in Heaven don't have lessons, do they? I do so often wish I was playing with them."