Mrs Greenly shook her head.
“But I doubt if I can wait for that. I must see the other girl this afternoon; and if she should suit the place there would be no more to be said. What do you think yourself, my girl?”
Christie had been too little accustomed to decide any matter for herself, to wish to decide this without first seeing her sister. So she only asked if Mrs Greenly passed near the street where Annie lived. Not very near, Mrs McIntyre said; but that need not interfere. Barbara should go with her there, if Mrs Greenly would consent to put off seeing the other girl till the next morning. Mrs McIntyre could not take the responsibility of advising Christie to accept the situation. It was better that her sister should decide. But Christie had decided in her own mind already. Any place would be better than none. But she needed Annie’s sanction that Effie might be satisfied—and, indeed, that she might be satisfied herself; for she had little self-reliance.
She saw Annie, who shrank from the thought of Christie’s having to trespass long on Mrs McIntyre’s hospitality; and Christie dwelt more on Mrs Greenly’s high praise of Mrs Lee than on the difficulties she might expect among so many children with insufficient help. So the next afternoon Christie and her little trunk were set down before the door of a high stone house in Saint — Street. She had to wait a while; for Mrs Greenly, the nurse, for whom she asked, was engaged for the time; but by and by she was taken up-stairs, and into a room where a lady was sitting in the dress of an invalid, with an infant on her lap. She greeted Christie very kindly; but there was a look of disappointment on her face, the girl was sure.
“She seems very young, nurse, and not very strong,” she said.
“She is not far from fifteen, and she says she has good health. She has been very well brought up,” said Mrs Greenly, quickly, giving Christie a look she did not understand.
“How old are you?” asked Mrs Lee, seeming not to have heard the nurse.
“I was fourteen in June. I am very well now, and much stronger than I look. I will try and do my best.”
There was something in the lady’s face and voice that made Christie very anxious to stay.
“Have you ever been in a place before?” the lady asked again.