The sharp Irish lady had hit it again, and Miss Ruth here interrupted to
ask Miss Bonkowski if she could remember the date on which the child had
been found in the vacant room. After some thought and debate, Miss Norma
declared it to have been on the morning of the eighth of July, because
her own birthday came on the fifteenth and she remembered remarking the
child had then been with them a week.
But here the whole party came to a standstill, and the wild, imploring
look came back in poor Rosy O'Brien's eyes.
The doctor laid his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "Don't fret, my
girl, it will all come right now in time. It is no wonder," turning to
Miss Stannard, "she has been so slow getting better. I have said a
hundred times the girl had something on her mind."
Miss Ruth turned to Rosy again. "Does the child's mother, or do her
people live here in the city?" she inquired.
The eyelids failed to move, which according to the doctor meant _no_.
"What will we do," sighed Miss Ruth, "for the more the child is asked,
the more perplexed we get, and now----"
"Sure an' we'll ask Mrs. Buckley, Rosy's sister, an' she'll tell us all
about it," said the practical Mrs. O'Malligan. "I remember well of her
tellin' me of the foine wages Rosy was a-gittin; along of her goin' off
so fur wid some rich lady as a nurse."
At this hopeful point the doctor interfered, thinking best to prevent
any further exciting of his patient, and accordingly wheeled her back
to her ward, leaving the others to soothe the terror of the child, at
seeing hope vanish with Rosy.
Pausing outside the big hospital in a trembling and excited little
group, Miss Stannard detailed her plans. As the snow was coming down
steadily, Miss Bonkowski should return to the Tenement at once with the
excited, sobbing child, and Mrs. O'Malligan should take Miss Ruth to
find Mrs. Buckley, the sister of poor Rosy O'Brien.
* * * * *
"And do you know," explained Miss Ruth that evening, to Mr. Dilke, who
had fallen into a way of calling quite frequently indeed, of late, "and
do you know, this woman, this Mrs. Buckley would not believe us, but
insisted that her sister, Rosy O'Brien, as well as the child her sister
had nursed, were drowned in that terrible ferry-boat disaster last July.
After what seemed to me hours of catechising, I got the story from her.
"A year ago, as I finally found out, her sister, this same Rosy
O'Brien, went South with a Mr. and Mrs. De Leon Breaux, whose child she
had been nursing at Narragansett during the summer.
"This spring, Mrs. Buckley, living then in the Tenement where the child
was afterward found, received a letter from Rosy, saying she would be in
the city with her mistress for a few days in July on their way to the
seashore for the summer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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