For whose sake?: A sequel to "Why did he wed her?"Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
General
For whose sake?: A sequel to "Why did he wed her?"
Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
Bigamy -- Fiction; England -- Fiction; Impostors and imposture -- Fiction
Then she wrapped the sleeping babies up carefully, put them in the
bottom, laid comfortably at each end with their feet passing each other
in the middle, covered them over with the double folds of the upper
blanket, and so done up like a pastry cook’s turn-over pie, she took
them in the basket on her arm and carried them out into the dimly
lighted back streets and off into the country to the infant asylum of
the Holy Maternity. She had not far to go. When she reached the gate,
which stood always open for the reception of such piteous little human
waifs as infant outcasts, she went in and up to the gable end of the
building, where stood the cage to receive the poor, naked, fatherless,
motherless human birdlings. It was a large oriel window, about breast
high from the ground.
She rang the bell at the side of the window. It swung open and around,
bearing attached on its inner side a soft, warm nest, or small cradle.
Mrs. Mally took the sleeping infants from the basket, one by one, and
placed them in the nest, tucked them snugly in, put the two cradle
blankets, folded, over them, and then rang the bell again. The
window-sash with the nest swung round and inward, and so the abandoned
babes were received within the sheltering arm of the “Holy Maternity,”
and no questions asked. We know the rest of their lives so far as they
have yet lived.
Mrs. Mally went home with her empty basket, and that night missed the
babes so much that she wept with contrition and loneliness.
The next day she hunted up every article of infant wear belonging to the
twins, washed and ironed all that was soiled, then packed them into the
basket, and when night came she went once more to the asylum and rang at
the receiving window. Again the nest swung outward, and she put into it,
no baby, but a quantity of babies’ clothing, then rang the bell again
and the offering was swung inward.
Then Mrs. Mally went home with the empty basket, relieved.
During all this time The O’Melaghlin lay ill of a long, lingering fever
in the mining camp under the shadow of the great Black Rock Ridges.
He had not been utterly unsuccessful during the first days of trial
before he succumbed to the fierce onset of his disease. He was as kindly
cared for by his companions as circumstances would permit. He had no
orthodox medical attendance. A Mexican Indian, an herb doctress, came
and nursed him. Her simple ministrations, with the aid of pure air, pure
water, nature and a good constitution, saved his life.
But his great mental trouble of anxiety to see or hear from his young
wife, left alone in the city hotel, tended to retard his recovery, which
was very tedious.
His mates had prospered in their search for gold. The mine promised to
hold out, and not run out as so many did. So, finding that the sick
man’s anxiety to see his young wife far outweighed his craving for the
gold mine, they made up a liberal purse among themselves to send him on
his way rejoicing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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