the Wellesley entrance exams. And I coached her so well she went through
without a condition, and she wasn't very quick, either. I wonder if I
couldn't teach?"

"Shoor, you could!"

"If I could get a position to teach in some school or some family, I
could, maybe, live here with you--rent this room--unless you have some
other use for it."

"Lord, no! I _call_ it the boarder's room because this flat is really
too rich for my blood, but you see I don't want the childern brought up
in a bad neighborhood with low companions. Well, Sammy argued the rent
was too high, till I told'm we'd let a room an' make it up that way,
but what with this, an' what with that, we ain't had any boarders
exceptin' now an' then some friend of himself out of a job, or one o'
the girls, livin' out in the houses where I work, gettin' bounced
suddent, an' in want of a bed, an' none of 'em ever paid us a cent or
was asked for it."

"Well, if I could get a position as teacher or governess, I'd soon be
able to pay back what you've laid out for me, and more besides, and--In
the houses where you work, are there any children who need a governess?
Any young girls who need a tutor? That's what I wanted to ask you,
Martha."

Mrs. Slawson deliberated in silence for a moment.

"There's the Livingstons," she mused, "but they ain't any childern. Only
a childish brother-in-law. He's not quite _all there,_ as you might say.