"Hum," resumed Winter. "Langley—yes, he can engage lodgings for you where you are going. When do you think you can start?"
"Oh!" said Kate, shrinkingly, "not sooner than a fortnight or three weeks."
"A fortnight or three weeks," cried the Colonel, "impossible!"
"You are a real, earnest worker, Miss Vernon," interposed Winter. "I expected a much longer date; what will become of me when you are gone? and gone on such an errand. 'Dio buono! le sciagure e le allegrezza non vengono mai sole;' but what do you think of doing with Mrs. O'Toole?"
"Oh, she goes with us, of course," replied Kate.
"Well, you know best how much you pay her, and whether you can afford it?" returned Winter.
"But nurse is not like a servant, she is a friend, she could never live with any people but us? Oh, do not tell me, we must leave nurse!" said Miss Vernon.
"We cannot accept her services for nothing," observed the Colonel.
"I will gladly engage her as cook and house-keeper, at whatever wages you give her."