"Of course he would!" says she. "What have you in your lap, Child?" The kid pinks up and produces a battered old doll,--one of these cloth-topped, everlastin' affairs, that looks like it had come from the Christmas tree quite some seasons back. "This is my dear Arabella," says Helma in her old-maid way. "I suppose I'm too old to play with dolls now; but I--I can't give her up. Only the night before Daddums went off I missed her for a while and thought she was lost. I cried myself to sleep. But what do you think? In the morning I found her again, right beside me on the pillow. I haven't gone a step without her since." "You dear little goose!" says Vee, reachin' out impetuous and givin' her a hug. "And where do you think you're going, you and your Arabella?" "I don't know," says Helma. "Only I mustn't let them put me in a home; for then I couldn't go with Daddums when he came out--you see?" Sure, we saw--that and a lot more. I could tell that Vee was puzzlin' over the situation by the way she was starin' at the youngster and grippin' her muff. Course you might say we wa'n't any Rescue Mission, or anything like that; but somehow this was diff'rent. Here was Helma, right in front of us! And I'm free to admit the proposition was too much for me. "Gee!" says I. "Handed out rough sometimes, ain't it? What's the answer, Vee?" "There's only one," says she. "I'm going to take Helma home with me." "What about Aunty?" says I. At which Vee's lips come together and her shoulders straighten. "I know," says she, "there'll be a row. Aunty's always saying that such affairs should be handled by institutions. But this time--well, we'll see. Come, Helma." "Oh, is it true?" gasps the youngster. "May I go with you? May I?" And as I tucked 'em into a taxi, Arabella and all, Vee whispers: "Torchy, if you're any good at all, you'll go straight and find out all about Daddums and just make them let him out!" "Eh?" says I. "Make 'em--say, ain't that some life-sized order?" "Perhaps," says she. "But you needn't come to see us until you've found him. Good-by!" Just like that I got it! And, say, there wa'n't any use tryin' to kid myself into thinkin' maybe she don't mean it. I'd seen how strong this story of little Helma's had got to her; and, believe me, when Vee gets real stirred up over anything she's some earnest party--no four-flushin' about her! And it don't seem to make much diff'rence who blocks the path. Look at her then, sailin' off to go up against a stiff-necked, cold-eyed Aunty, who's a believer in checkbook charity, and mighty little of that! And just so I won't feel out of it she tosses me a job that would keep a detective bureau and a board of pardons busy for a month. "Whiffo!" says I, gawpin' up the avenue after the cab. "And I pulled this down just by bein' halfway human! Oh, very well, very well! Here's where I strain something!"