spirits and bother her life out with rules and regulations; and I won't
have a giddy young thing, because I should like to have the child with
me at breakfast and lunch, and I don't want a fly-away young woman who
will expect all sorts of attention. Now, what is your idea? I have no
doubt you have, pictured in your mind, the exact sort of woman you
would like to have over her."

"I have," the sergeant answered quietly. "I don't know whether it would
suit you, squire, or whether it could be managed; but it does seem, to
me, that you have got the very woman close at hand. Aggie has been for
two years with Mrs. Walsham, who is a lady in every way. She is very
fond of the child, and the child is very fond of her. Everyone says she
is an excellent teacher. She would be the very woman to take charge of
her."

"The very thing!" the squire exclaimed, with great satisfaction. "But
she has a school," he went on, his face falling a little, "and there is
a son."

"I have thought of that," the sergeant said. "The school enables them
to live, but it cannot do much more, so that I should think she would
feel no reluctance at giving that up."

"Money would be no object," the squire said. "I am a wealthy man, Mr.
Wilks, and have been laying by the best part of my income for the last
eight years. I would pay any salary she chose, for the comfort of such
an arrangement would be immense, to say nothing of the advantage and
pleasure it would be to the child. But how about the boy?"

"We both owe a good deal to the boy, squire," the sergeant said