The pale lips tightened over the prominent white teeth. "Well, I swan, Lovey Mary, where"d you come from?" Not waiting for an answer, she continued querulously: "Say, can"t you get me out of this hole someway? But even if I had the strength to crawl, I wouldn"t have no place to go. Can"t you take me away? Anywhere would do."
Lovey Mary"s spirits fell; she had nerved herself for a great sacrifice, had decided to do her duty at any cost; but thinking of it beforehand in her little garret room, with Tommy"s hand in hers, and Kate Rider a mere abstraction, was very different from facing the real issue, with the old, selfish, heartless Kate in flesh and blood before her. She let go of Kate"s hand.
"Don"t you want to know about Tommy?" she asked. "I"ve come to say I was sorry I run off with him."
"It was mighty nervy in you. I knew you"d take good care of him, though. But say! you can get me away from this, can"t you? I ain"t got a friend in the world nor a cent of money. But I ain"t going to stay here, where there ain"t nothing to do, and I get so lonesome I "most die. I"d rather set on a street corner and run a hand-organ. Where are you and Tommy at?"
"We are in the Cabbage Patch," said Lovey Mary, with the old repulsion strong upon her.
"Where?"
"The Cabbage Patch. It ain"t your sort of a place, Kate. The folks are good and honest, but they are poor and plain. You"d laugh at "em."
Kate turned her eyes to the window and was silent a moment before she said slowly:
"I ain"t got much right to laugh at n.o.body. I"d be sorter glad to get with good people again. The other sort"s all right when you"re out for fun, but when you"re down on your luck they ain"t there."
Lovey Mary, perplexed and troubled, looked at her gravely.
"Haven"t you got any place you could go to?"
[Ill.u.s.tration: ""Haven"t you got any place you could go to?""]
Kate shook her head. "n.o.body would be willing to look after me and nurse me. Lovey,"--she stretched her thin hand across to her entreatingly,--"take me home with you! I heard the doctor tell the nurse he couldn"t do nothing more for me. I can"t die here shut up with all these sick people. Take me wherever you are at. I"ll try not to be no trouble, and--I want to keep straight."
Tears were in her eyes, and her lips trembled. There was a queer little spasm at Lovey Mary"s heart. The canker-worm was dead.
When a carriage drove up to Miss Hazy"s door and the driver carried in a pale girl with a bandaged head, it caused untold commotion.
"Do you s"pose Mary"s a-bringin" home a smallpox patient?" asked Miss Hazy, who was ever p.r.o.ne to look upon the tragic side.
"Naw!" said Chris, who was peeping under the window-curtain; "it looks more like she"s busted her crust."
In less than an hour every neighbor had been in to find out what was going on. Mrs. Wiggs const.i.tuted herself mistress of ceremonies. She had heard the whole story from the overburdened Mary, and was now prepared to direct public opinion in the way it should go.
"Jes another boarder for Miss Hazy," she explained airily to Mrs.
Eichorn. "Lovey Mary was so well pleased with her boardin"-house, she drummed it up among her friends. This here lady has been at the hospittal. She got knocked over by a wagon out there near the factory, an" it run into celebrated concussion. The nurse told Lovey Mary this mornin" it was somethin" like information of the brain. What we"re all goin" to do is to try to get her well. I"m a-goin" home now to git her a nice dinner, an" I jes bet some of you"ll see to it that she gits a good supper. You kin jes bank on us knowin" how to give a stranger a welcome!"
It was easy to establish a precedent in the Cabbage Patch. When a certain course of action was once understood to be the proper thing, every resident promptly fell in line. The victim of "celebrated concussion" was overwhelmed with attention. She lay in a pink wrapper in Miss Hazy"s kitchen, and received the homage of the neighborhood.
Meanwhile Lovey Mary worked extra hours at the factory and did sewing at night to pay for Kate"s board.
In spite, however, of the kind treatment and the regular administration of Miss Viny"s herbs and Mrs. Wiggs"s yellowroot, Kate grew weaker day by day. One stormy night when Lovey Mary came home from the factory she found her burning with fever and talking excitedly. Miss Hazy had gotten her up-stairs, and now stood helplessly wringing her hands in the doorway.
"Lor", Lovey Mary! she"s cuttin" up scandalous," complained the old lady. "I done ever"thing I knowed how; I ironed the sheets to make "em warm, an" I tried my best to git her to swallow a mustard c.o.c.ktail. I wanted her to lemme put a fly-blister on to her head, too, but she won"t do nothin"."
"All right, Miss Hazy," said Lovey Mary, hanging her dripping coat on a nail. "I"ll stay with her now. Don"t talk, Kate! Try to be still."
"But I can"t, Lovey. I"m going to die, and I ain"t fit to die. I"ve been so bad and wicked, I"m "fraid to go, Lovey. What"ll I do? What"ll I do?"
In vain the girl tried to soothe her. Her hysteria increased; she cried and raved and threw herself from side to side.
"Kate! Kate!" pleaded Lovey Mary, trying to hold her arms, "don"t cry so. G.o.d"ll forgive you. He will, if you are sorry."
"But I"m afraid," shuddered Kate. "I"ve been so bad. Heaven knows I"m sorry, but it"s too late! Too late!" Another paroxysm seized her, and her cries burst forth afresh.
Mary, in desperation, rushed from the room. "Tommy!" she called softly down the steps.
The small boy was sitting on the stairs, in round-eyed wonder at what was going on.
"Tommy," said Lovey Mary, picking him up, "the sick lady feels so bad!
Go in and give her a love, darling. Pet her cheeks and hug her like you do me. Tell her she"s a pretty mama. Tell her you love her."
Tommy trotted obediently into the low room and climbed on the bed. He put his plump cheek against the thin one, and whispered words of baby- love. Kate"s muscles relaxed as her arms folded about him. Gradually her sobs ceased and her pulse grew faint and fainter. Outside, the rain and sleet beat on the cracked window-pane, but a peace had entered the dingy little room. Kate received the great summons with a smile, for in one fleeting moment she had felt for the first and last time the blessed sanct.i.ty of motherhood.
CHAPTER XIII
AN HONORABLE RETREAT
"For I will ease my heart Although, it be with hazard Of my head."
Miss Bell sat in her neat little office, with the evening paper in her hand. The hour before tea was the one time of the day she reserved for herself. Susie Smithers declared that she sat before the fire at such times and took naps, but Susie"s knowledge was not always trustworthy --it depended entirely on the position of the keyhole.
At any rate, Miss Bell was not sleeping to-night; she moved about restlessly, brushing imaginary ashes from the spotless hearth, staring absently into the fire, then recurring again and again to an item in the paper which she held:
DIED. Kate Rider, in her twenty-fourth year, from injuries received in an accident.
Miss Bell seemed to cringe before the words. Her face looked old and drawn. "And to think I kept her from having her child!" she said to herself as she paced up and down the narrow room. "No matter what else Kate was, she was his mother and had the first right to him. But I acted for the best; I could see no other way. If I had only known!"
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Susie Smithers at the keyhole."]
There were steps on the pavement without; she went to the window, and shading her eyes with her hands, gazed into the gathering dusk. Some one was coming up the walk, some one very short and fat. No; it was a girl carrying a child. Miss Bell reached the door just in time to catch Tommy in her arms as Lovey Mary staggered into the hall. They were covered with sleet and almost numb from the cold.
"Kate"s dead!" cried Lovey Mary, as Miss Bell hurried them into the office. "I didn"t know she was going to die. Oh, I"ve been so wicked to you and to Kate and to G.o.d! I want to be arrested! I don"t care what they do to me."
She threw herself on the floor, and beat her fists on the carpet.
Tommy stood near and wept in sympathy; he wore his remnant trousers, and his little straw hat, round which Mrs. Wiggs had sewn a broad band of black.
Miss Bell hovered over Lovey Mary and patted her nervously on the back. "Don"t, my dear, don"t cry so. It"s very sad--dear me, yes, very sad. You aren"t alone to blame, though; I have been at fault, too. I-- I--feel dreadfully about it."
Miss Bell"s face was undergoing such painful contortions that Lovey Mary stopped crying in alarm, and Tommy got behind a chair.
"Of course," continued Miss Bell, gaining control of herself, "it was very wrong of you to run away, Mary. When I discovered that you had gone I never stopped until I found you."
"Till you found me?" gasped Lovey Mary.