Then she asked, “What next?” and was speedily answered. An advertisement for a governess met her eye, which seemed to combine the two things she most needed just then,—employment and change of air.
“Mind you don’t mention that you’ve been an actress or it will be all up with you, me dear,” said Mrs. Black, as Christie prepared to investigate the matter, for since her last effort in that line she had increased her knowledge of music, and learned French enough to venture teaching it to very young pupils.
“I’d rather tell in the beginning, for if you keep any thing back it’s sure to pop out when you least expect or want it. I don’t believe these people will care as long as I’m respectable and teach well,” returned Christie, wishing she looked stronger and rosier.
“You’ll be sorry if you do tell,” warned Mrs. Black, who knew the ways of the world.
“I shall be sorry if I don’t,” laughed Christie, and so she was, in the end.
“L. N. Saltonstall” was the name on the door, and L. N. Saltonstall’s servant was so leisurely about answering Christie’s meek solo on the bell, that she had time to pull out her bonnet-strings half-a-dozen times before a very black man in a very white jacket condescended to conduct her to his mistress.
A frail, tea-colored lady appeared, displaying such a small proportion of woman to such a large proportion of purple and fine linen, that she looked as if she was literally as well as figuratively “dressed to death.”
Christie went to the point in a business-like manner that seemed to suit Mrs. Saltonstall, because it saved so much trouble, and she replied, with a languid affability:
“I wish some one to teach the children a little, for they are getting too old to be left entirely to nurse. I am anxious to get to the sea-shore as soon as possible, for they have been poorly all winter, and my own health has suffered. Do you feel inclined to try the place? And what compensation do you require?”
Christie had but a vague idea of what wages were usually paid to nursery governesses, and hesitatingly named a sum which seemed reasonable to her, but was so much less than any other applicant had asked, that Mrs. Saltonstall began to think she could not do better than secure this cheap young person, who looked firm enough to manage her rebellious son and heir, and well-bred enough to begin the education of a little fine lady. Her winter had been an extravagant one, and she could economize in the governess better perhaps than elsewhere; so she decided to try Christie, and get out of town at once.