Edith rallied herself and walked on, the men coming closer and closer.
She saw them look at each other with leering eyes, and then at her in a way that made her shiver. When only a few paces distant, they paused, and with the evident intention of barring her farther progress.
"Good-afternoon, miss," said one of them, with a low bow. "Can we do anything for you?"
The pale, frightened face of Edith was noticed by the other, and it touched some remnant of manhood not yet wholly extinguished.
"Let her alone, you miserable cuss!" he cried, and giving his drunken companion a shove, sent him staggering across the street. This made the way clear, and Edith sprang forward, but she had gone only a few feet when she came face to face with another obstruction even more frightful, if possible, than the first. A woman with a red, swollen visage, black eye, soiled, tattered, drunk, with arms wildly extended, came rushing up to her. The child gave a scream. The wretched creature caught at a shawl worn by Edith, and was dragging it from her shoulders, when the door of one of the houses flew open, and a woman came out hastily. Grasping the a.s.sailant, she hurled her across the street with the strength of a giant.
"We"re going to the mission," said the child.
"It"s just down there. Go "long. I"ll stand here and see that no one meddles with you again."
Edith faltered her thanks, and went on.
"That"s the queen," said her companion.
"The queen!" Edith"s hasty tones betrayed her surprise.
"Yes; it"s Norah. They"re all afraid of her. I"m glad she saw us. She"s as strong as a man."
In a few minutes they reached the mission, but in those few minutes Edith saw more to sadden the heart, more to make it ache for humanity, than could be described in pages.
The missionary was at home. Edith told him the purpose of her call and the locality she desired to visit.
"I wanted to go alone," she remarked, "but this little girl, who is in my cla.s.s at the sewing-school, said it wouldn"t be safe, and that you would go with me."
"I should be sorry to have you go alone into Grubb"s court," said the missionary, kindly, and with concern in his voice, "for a worse place can hardly be found in the city--I was going to say in the world. You will be safe with me, however. But why do you wish to visit Grubb"s court? Perhaps I can do all that is needed."
"This little girl who lives in there, has been telling me about a poor neglected baby that her mother says has no doubt been stolen, and--and--" Edith voice faltered, but she quickly gained steadiness under a strong effort of will: "I thought perhaps I might be able to do something for it--to get it into one of the homes, maybe. It is dreadful, sir, to think of little babies being neglected."
Mr. Paulding questioned the child who had brought Edith to the mission-house, and learned from her that the baby was merely boarded by the woman who had it in charge, and that she sometimes took it out and sat on the street, begging. The child repeated what she had said to Edith--that the baby was the property, so to speak, of two abandoned women, who paid its board.
"I think," said the missionary, after some reflection, "that if getting the child out of their hands is your purpose, you had better not go there at present. Your visit would arouse suspicion; and if the two women have anything to gain by keeping the child in their possession, it will be at once taken to a new place. I am moving about in these localities all the while, and can look in upon the baby without anything being thought of it."
This seemed so reasonable that Edith, who could not get over the nervous tremors occasioned by what she had already seen and encountered, readily consented to leave the matter for the present in Mr. Paulding"s hands.
"If you will come here to-morrow," said the missionary, "I will tell you all I can about the baby."
Out of a region where disease, want and crime shrunk from common observation, and sin and death held high carnival, Edith hurried with trembling feet, and heart beating so heavily that she could hear it throb, the considerate missionary going with her until she had crossed the boundary of this morally infected district.
Mr. Dinneford met Edith at the door on her arrival home.
"My child," he exclaimed as he looked into her face, back to which the color had not returned since her fright in Briar street, "are you sick?"
"I don"t feel very well;" and she tried to pa.s.s him hastily in the hall as they entered the house together. But he laid his hand on her arm and held her back gently, then drew her into the parlor. She sat down, trembling, weak and faint. Mr. Dinneford waited for some moments, looking at her with a tender concern, before speaking.
"Where have you been, my dear?" he asked, at length.
After a little hesitation, Edith told her father about her visit to Briar street and the shock she had received.
"You were wrong," he answered, gravely. "It is most fortunate for you that you took the child"s advice and called at the mission. If you had gone to Grubb"s court alone, you might not have come out alive."
"Oh no, father! It can"t be so bad as that."
"It is just as bad as that," he replied, with a troubled face and manner. "Grubb"s court is one of the traps into which unwary victims are drawn that they may be plundered. It is as much out of common observation almost as the lair of a wild beast in some deep wilderness.
I have heard it described by those who have been there under protection of the police, and shudder to think of the narrow escape you have made.
I don"t want you to go into that vile district again. It is no place for such as you."
"There"s a poor little baby there," said Edith, her voice trembling and tears filling her eyes. Then, after a brief struggle with her feelings, she threw herself upon her father, sobbing out, "And oh, father, it may be my baby!"
"My poor child," said Mr. Dinneford, not able to keep his voice firm--"my poor, poor child! It is all a wild dream, the suggestion of evil spirits who delight in torment."
"What became of my baby, father? Can you tell me?"
"It died, Edith dear. We know that," returned her father, trying to speak very confidently. But the doubt in his own mind betrayed itself.
"Do you know it?" she asked, rising and confronting her father.
"I didn"t actually see it die. But--but--"
"You know no more about it than I do," said Edith; "if you did, you might set my heart at rest with a word. But you cannot. And so I am left to my wild fears, that grow stronger every day. Oh, father, help me, if you can. I must have certainty, or I shall lose my reason."
"If you don"t give up this wild fancy, you surely will," answered Mr.
Dinneford, in a distressed voice.
"If I were to shut myself up and do nothing," said Edith, with greater calmness, "I would be in a madhouse before a week went by. My safety lies in getting down to the truth of this wild fancy, as you call it. It has taken such possession of me that nothing but certainty can give me rest. Will you help me?"
"How can I help you? I have no clue to this sad mystery."
"Mystery! Then you are as much in the dark as I am--know no more of what became of my baby than I do! Oh, father, how could you let such a thing be done, and ask no questions--such a cruel and terrible thing--and I lying helpless and dumb? Oh, father, my innocent baby cast out like a dog to perish--nay, worse, like a lamb among wolves to be torn by their cruel teeth--and no one to put forth a hand to save! If I only knew that he was dead! If I could find his little grave and comfort my heart over it!"
Weak, naturally good men, like Mr. Dinneford, often permit great wrongs to be done in shrinking from conflict and evading the sterner duties of life. They are often the faithless guardians of immortal trusts.
There was a tone of accusation and rebuke in Edith"s voice that smote painfully on her father"s heart. He answered feebly:
"What could I do? How should I know that anything wrong was being done?
You were very ill, and the baby was sent away to be nursed, and then I was told that it was dead."
"Oh, father! Sent away without your seeing it! My baby! Your little grandson! Oh, father!"
"But you know, dear, in what a temper of mind your mother was--how impossible it is for me to do anything with her when she once sets herself to do a thing."
"Even if it be murder!" said Edith, in a hoa.r.s.e whisper.
"Hush, hush, my child! You must not speak so," returned the agitated father.
A silence fell between them. A wall of separation began to grow up.
Edith arose, and was moving from the room.