ly respectable man. I have something to say to you which may be
greatly for your benefit. Don't look surprised; I am coming to the point
at once. Do you want to earn a little money? honestly, of course. You
don't look as if you were very rich, child."

"I am very poor, and very much in want of some honest work to do,"
answered the girl, sadly.

"Then we shall suit each other to a nicety; for I have work of the
pleasantest kind to give you, and plenty of money to pay for it. But
before we say anything more about that, suppose you tell me first
something about yourself--who you are, and so forth. You know who I am
already."

"I am only a poor work-girl, and my name is Nanina. I have nothing more,
sir, to say about myself than that."

"Do you belong to Pisa?"

"Yes, sir--at least, I did. But I have been away for some time. I was a
year at Florence, employed in needlework."

"All by yourself?"

"No, sir, with my little sister. I was waiting for her when you came
up."

"Have you never done anything else but needlework? never been out at
service?"

"Yes, sir. For the last eight months I have had a situation to wait on a
lady at Florence, and my sister (who is turned eleven, sir, and can make
herself very useful) was allowed to help in the nursery."

"How came you to leave this situation?"

"The lady and her family were going to Rome, sir. They would have taken
me with them, but they could not take my sister. We are alone in the
world, and we never have been parted from each other, and never shall
be--so I was obliged to leave the situation."

"And here you are, back at Pisa--with nothing to do, I suppose?"

"Nothing yet, sir. We only came back yesterday."

"Only yesterday! You are a lucky girl, let me tell you, to have met
with me. I suppose you have somebody in the town who can speak to your
character?"

"The landlady of this house can, sir."

"And who is she, pray?"

"Marta Angrisani, sir."

"What! the well-known sick-nurse? You could not possibly have a better
recommendation, child. I remember her being employed at the Melani
Palace at the time of the marquis's last attack of gout; but I never
knew that she kept a lodging-house."

"She and her daughter, sir, have owned this house longer than I can
recollect. My sister and I have lived in it since I was quite a little
child, and I had hoped we might be able to live here again. But the top
room we used to have is taken, and the room to let lower dow