'Papa, I want to make a very serious proposition to you. Do not laugh at me' (the colonel looked like anything but laughing), 'but listen to me patiently. You know we cannot go on permanently as we have done this year, paying out more than we took in?'
'That is my affair.'
'But it is for my sake, papa, and so it comes home to me. Now this is my proposal. I have really had schooling enough. Let me give lessons.'
'Let you do what?'
'Lessons, papa; let me give lessons. I have not spoken to Miss Fairbairn, but I am almost sure she would be glad of me; one of her teachers is going away. I could give lessons in Latin and French and English and drawing, and still have time to study; and I think it would make up perhaps all the deficiency in our income.'
The colonel looked at her. 'You have not spoken of this scheme to anybody else?'
'No, sir; of course not.'
'Then, do not speak of it.'
'You do not approve of it, papa?'
'No. My purpose in giving you an education was not that you might be a governess.'