"Well, child, that's all right. Here comes Miss Christian. Now listen, Rosy. You are not to stay long; you are to go away in about half-an-hour, for my young lady looks very peaky."
Christian sat by the fire. Nurse gathered up her work and prepared to go into the schoolroom. She knew the children would like to be alone, and she had promised to help Miss Thompson in her constant search after Christian's possessions.
"A more untidy child I never saw," said Miss Thompson when the old woman entered the room. "But there! I do pity her. I think it is perfectly awful the way the poor child is kept in the dark. It is that that worries me."
"Well," said nurse, "there's sense in it too. She won't have time to fret; it will be one sharp blow and then the worst will be over. Miss Christian has got fancies and all kinds of romances about her, and she'd conjure up horrors like anything. Children who conjure up ought to be kept from brooding; that's what I say."
Meanwhile the two girls in the cozy nursery were sitting side by side.
"I have eight sovereigns," began Christian. "I've got another since I saw you last. Mother gave it to me."
"Oh, golloptious!" said Rosy.
"Do you think eight sovereigns will go a long, long way? Do you think they will be enough till we have made our fortunes by being tambourine and dancing girls?" exclaimed Christian.
"To be sure they will!" answered Rosy. "Now, Christian, you listen. I have it planned splendid. You'll have to do it this way, and this alone. My friend that I told you of aint much to look at, but she's clever. My word! I never came across anyone with such brains. I spoke to her last night. She is apprenticed to a dressmaker next door to mother, and she's sick of it."