an
pay the housekeeping bills. Your stopping here will be a saving,"
good-naturedly added Jan. "With nobody in the house to manage, except
servants, only think the waste there'd be! Cheese would be for getting
two dinners a day served, fish, and fowls, and tarts at each."

The tears were struggling in Deborah West's eyes. She did her best to
repress them: but it could not be, and she gave way with a burst.

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Jan," she said. "Sometimes I feel as if there
was no longer any place in the world for me and Amilly. You may be sure
I would not mention it, but that you know it as well as I do--that there
is, I fear, no dependence to be placed on this promise of papa's, to
allow us an income. I have been thinking----"

"Don't let that trouble you, Miss Deb," interrupted Jan, tilting himself
backwards over the arm of the chair in a very ungraceful fashion, and
leaving his legs dangling. "Others will, if he wo--if he can't. Lionel
has just been saying that as Sibylla's sisters, he shall see that you
don't want."

"You and he are very kind," she answered, the tears dropping faster than
she could wipe them away. "But it seems to me the time is come when we
ought to try and do something for ourselves. I have been thinking, Mr.
Jan, that we might get a few pupils, I and Amilly. There's not a single
good school in Deerham, as you know; I think we might establish one."

"So you might," said Jan, "if you'd like it."

"We should both like it. And perhaps you'd not mind our staying on in
this house while we were getting a few together; establishing it, as it
were. They would not put you out, I hope, Mr. Jan."

"Not they," answered Jan. "I shouldn't eat them. Look here, Miss Deb,
I'd doctor them for nothing. Couldn't you put that in the prospectus? It
might prove an attraction."

It was a novel feature in a school prospectus, and Miss Deb had to take
some minutes to consider it. She came to the conclusion that it would
look remarkably well in print. "Medical attendance gratis."

"Including physic," put in Jan.

"Medical attendance gratis, including physic," repeated Miss Deb. "Mr.
Jan, it would be sure to take with the parents. I am so much obliged to
you. But I hope," she added, moderating her tone of satisfaction, "that
they'd not think it meant Master Cheese. People would not have much
faith in him, I fear."

"Tell them to the contrary," answered Jan. "And Cheese will be leaving
shortly, you know."

"