"That is where I get off," she said.
"Indeed," said he; "then perhaps you will engage the country girl whom I intended to hire."
"Do you know any one living there," she asked, "who would come to me as nurse-maid?"
"I don't know a soul in Romney," said Lodloe; "I never was in the place in my life. I merely supposed that in a little town like that there were girls to be hired. I don't intend to remain in Romney, to be sure, but I thought it would be much safer to engage a girl there than to trust to getting one in the country place to which I am going."
"And you thought out all that, and about my baby?" said Mrs. Cristie.
"Yes, I did," said Lodloe, laughing.
"Very well," said she; "I shall avail myself of your forethought, and shall try to get a girl in Romney. Where do you go when you leave there?"
"Oh, I am going some five or six miles from the town, to a place called the 'Squirrel Inn.'"
"The Squirrel Inn!" exclaimed Mrs. Cristie, dropping her hands into her lap and leaning forward.
"Yes," said Lodloe; "are you going there?"