"Is it?" said Maggie, looking up.
"Yes, Maggie," said Christina; "and I shall love you so much; and you, and mother, and perhaps grandmother, will be so happy, I hope."
Maggie came forward under the influence of those kind eyes, and laid her hand in Christina's. "Thank you, ma'am," she said, "'cause mother's eyes are very tired with that work."
Christina kissed her again, and thought of their talk about the clean children being the nicest, and then she turned to the grandmother. It had all to be explained again; but Mrs. Fenton did not accept it as quickly and readily as her daughter-in-law and Christina expected.
"It is a great change in my life, ma'am," she said at last; "and I think I must have time to consider it well. I should like very, very much to do it; but I would not wish to break up my little home, and lose what work I have now, and then repent it!"
"My mother is a laundress," explained Margaret.
Christina looked abstractedly out of the window; a new thought had struck her.
"I wonder," at length she said, "whether we could manage it in rather a different way. There is a gardener's cottage, a very small one, adjoining the house I think of having, and I was going to let it off; but supposing you lived there and did our washing for us?"
Margaret looked anxiously at her mother, as if this must be the very thing for her.
The woman paused again. "I am extremely obliged, ma'am," she said, with great feeling in her voice, "and I will ask my Father about it, and let you know. I cannot go a step without Him, ma'am."