After the retreat of Pendleton and Flood, Rosamund went back to the
little boy's room, smiling. Mother Cary looked up at her with a face
slightly troubled.
"Seems like your friends ain't willing to have you stay here," she
said. "Is there anything calling you home, honey, anything that needs
you?"
The girl shook her head. "I think I have never been needed anywhere in
all my life, until now," she said. Then, perhaps because of Flood's
words, she remembered Eleanor. "Well, perhaps there is one person who
has needed me, from time to time; and, dear Mother Cary, she is
somewhere near here. She came to Bluemont to be near Doctor Ogilvie."
"There's a many a one that does," said Mother Cary.
"My friend is Mrs. Reeves. Do you know her?"
"Land, honey, rich city folks don't bother to become acquainted with
the likes of me!" the old woman said, smiling.
"Mrs. Reeves is not 'rich city folks.' She is working for her living
all the while she is here in the mountains; she is companion for
another of the doctor's patients, Mrs. Hetherbee."
"Oh, I know!" Yetta exclaimed. "I saw her in the post-office one day
askin' for the mail, while the old one waited outside in the
automobile. Gee! That old one looked cross!"