How impatiently she waited for the answer! It came two days afterwards in a man's handwriting.
"COLWYN HOUSE,
"Daisy Bank.
"DEAR MISS DOUGLAS,
"Mrs. Holtby being ill and unable to write to you herself, she has asked me to inform you that we have written to your referees, and if all proves satisfactory, she will be pleased to engage you at a salary of twenty-five pounds per annum. Your duties will be quite simple, and we shall treat you as one of the family. As you ask for a reference from me, I beg to give you the following:—
"A. Crayshaw, Esq.,
"The Laurels,
"West Bromwich.
"Should you decide to come to us, we shall be pleased to receive you this day week.
"Yours truly,
"LIONEL HOLTBY."
"What do you think of it, mother?"
"I think it sounds all right, dear, but of course we must write to this Mr. Crayshaw before deciding anything."
The letter from West Bromwich proved quite satisfactory, bearing witness to the respectability of the Holtby family, and therefore, after much thought and also much prayer, Mrs. Douglas consented to Marjorie's going to Daisy Bank.
"You can come home again if all is not right," she said. "Rather than you should be unhappy, we will forfeit anything."
That last week at home seemed to fly on the wings of the wind. There was so much to be done; their heads were so fully occupied in thinking of what was needed for Marjorie's outfit, as she called it, their hands were so busy in cutting out and making sundry pretty blouses and morning dresses, that there was little time to dwell upon the parting that was coming.
It was not until the last night, when her trunk was locked and strapped and taken downstairs, and when only the dress-basket, which was to be left open until the morning, remained in her room as evidence of her coming journey, it was only then that, for a little time, Marjorie's heart failed her. It was so hard to leave them all, but especially her mother. She could not help her tears falling fast as she thought of it. She was going out into the world alone. No, not alone, her best Friend would go with her; she would not forget that. And all this had come by His ordering; it was His will that was being done. She looked up and read a card which she had bought the last time she was in Keswick, and which was hanging over her bed. In the middle of this card, in gold letters, were these two words—
"YES, LORD,"
And underneath them was this verse—