“What! are you here? I thought you had been far enough away by this time. How came you to leave your charge?”
Christie came forward shyly, looking at Mrs Seaton.
“Mr Lee thought her not strong enough,” said Mrs Seaton. “There was no other one to go; and she hardly seemed fit for the charge of all.”
“Humph! He has made a mistake or two before in his lifetime—and so has she, for that matter,” said the doctor, with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Mrs Lee didn’t know when they would come back again, and she didn’t like to take me so far-away,” said Christie; “and I was very sorry.”
“And so you are to be Claude’s nurse, it seems?”
Christie looked at Mrs Seaton.
“She came, in the meantime, to go out with Clement and to help in the nursery generally. I have kept Claude with me altogether of late.” And as Christie took the little boy to the balcony again, she added, “I don’t see how I can leave him. Poor little fellow! He will let no one care for him but me.”
The doctor shook his head.
“That may be very well for him, but it is very bad indeed for you. Indeed, it must not be. Let me make a plan for you. You can quite safely leave him with this new nurse. I would recommend her among a thousand—”