She had
not looked ahead so far as that.

"It is necessary to take all things into consideration," he said,
answering her look. "You would not wish to put Sarah and her mother
into a place of comfort for a little while, merely to let them fall out
of it again?"

"O no, sir!"

"How are they to be maintained in it?"

Matilda pondered.

"I could take care of the rent, I think, I mean _we_ could, for a
while; for a year, perhaps; by that time couldn't they pay it, don't
you think?"

"How?"

"By their work; by their earnings."

"But now, and for a long time past, their work has not enabled them to
pay for anything better than they have got."

"Couldn't they do something better, Mr. Wharncliffe? something else?
that would give them more money?"

"What work could you help them to, that would pay better?"

"I don't know, sir," said Matilda, looking up wistfully in her
teacher's face. "I don't know anything about such things. Can _you_
tell me? What work is there that they could get. What the other poor
people do?"

"There are other things," said Mr. Wharncliffe thoughtfully. "There are
better and better paying sorts of sewing; what Mrs. Staples does is
very coarse, and she gets very little for it. But machine work
now-a-days puts hand work at a disadvantage."

"What is machine work, sir?"

"Work done on a sewing machine. With a machine a woman can do I
suppose, ten times as much in a day, and with more ease to herself."

"Well, wouldn't Mrs. Staples work on a machine?"

"I do not know. I think she used to take in washing once. She could do
that again, if she had a better room and conveniences."

"And does that pay better?"

"I believe so. Indeed I am sure."

"Then she might do washing," said Matilda; "and Sarah might sew on a
machine, Mr. Wharncliffe."

"She has not got one, you know."

"If we could get her one? Wouldn't that be nice, Mr. Wharncliffe?"

"My dear child, a good sewing machine costs a good deal of money."

"But _if_ we could, Mr. Wharncliffe? I said _if_."

"Nothing could be better. Perhaps, by and by, it might be managed. In
the mean time, Sarah might learn, and possibly get work; or get a
machine and pay for it gradually by doing work for the makers. Such
arrangements are made."

"How much does a sewing machine cost?"

"From forty five to sixty dollars."

"Forty five," repeated Matilda gravely. "But, Mr. Wharncliffe, in the
first place the thing to do is to get them out of t