ep
yourself, let alone keep your sister as well.'

'We could live on very little,' pleaded Stella; and here she brought out
from her purse a slip from a newspaper. 'I thought of answering this.'
So saying, she handed it to the old lawyer, who read an advertisement
for a secretary in a City office who could typewrite quickly and
correctly, and transcribe difficult manuscripts in French and English.

'You might be able to do this,' said the lawyer, 'for, to be sure, you
are both excellent French scholars; but a City office'----He looked
most disapproving. 'Well,' he said, 'there is no harm in answering it;
or suppose you let me answer it for you?'

'I was going to ask you whether you would give me a testimonial; but if
you would write for me it would be very, very kind of you,' replied
Stella.

'Very well,' said Mr. Stacey with a sigh, 'I shall write to this man;
but no doubt he will have hundreds of other applications. The pay is
good, and girls who can typewrite are to be found by the thousand
nowadays.'

'Yes,' said Stella eagerly; 'but he says "an educated person," and I
read in the papers the other day that three-quarters of the girls who go
in for typewriting cannot even write their own language, so they
probably would not be able to write French.'

'But thirty-five shillings a week! How are you going to live upon
thirty-five shillings a week?' inquired the lawyer.

'It will be forty-five shillings a week,' corrected Stella.

'Well, forty-five shillings a week between two of you; that is not a
hundred and fifty pounds a year. It would take that for you alone to
live in London.'

'I have calculated it all out, Mr. Stacey; and if you would not mind
looking at this sheet of paper I think you will see that we could do
it;' and Stella handed the lawyer a second piece of paper, upon which,
in a very neat and legible hand, the girl had written out her idea of
the probable cost of living for two people in London in lodgings.

'Rent ten pounds a year!' ejaculated the lawyer, reading the first item
on the list in a tone of mingled surprise and amusement. 'That shows how
much you know of London and its prices. Where do you suppose you would
get lodgings for two people at eight shillings per week? Why, a couple
of rooms would cost a guinea at least.'

Stella Wharton's expressive face fell as she said, 'I didn't know that.
The Misses Burns have a very nice little house here for twenty pounds a
year, and I thought l