"Yes, with pleasure," said the Squire. "I insist on your accepting ten pounds a month—that will be one hundred and twenty a year. Now, will you have a check, or shall I give you the money in gold and notes?"
"The gold will be the most acceptable," said Effie. "Oh, I feel so ashamed!" she added.
"Why should you? You give us an equivalent. Besides, it makes matters more tolerable. I cannot forget——"
"Oh, don't, Walter—don't allude to that awful time!"—cried Mrs. Harvey.
The Squire shut up his lips. He took a little bundle of gold out of one of his pockets and put ten sovereigns into Effie's hand.
"It is a bargain," he said. "I cannot tell you how relieved we are. You'll be with us the morning after next? Elfreda, my love, we must tell our little Freda what a pleasure is in store for her."
"Yes, I am more than delighted," exclaimed Mrs. Harvey. "This plan suits me in every way. You won't fail us, Miss Staunton? for, in case Freda by any chance has taken that awful whooping-cough, you can keep her in isolation from the very first."
"Oh, yes!" said Effie, smiling; "but I dare say she is all right."
She shook hands with her new employers and left the house.
The gold was in her pocket. She felt that she had sold herself and her mission in life for ten sovereigns. "It is the present need which makes the thing so desperate," she said under her breath. "If George has drawn all the money, they have absolutely nothing to live on; but more will come in, and there's this to go on with. We'll manage somehow now."