It was dawn when the two girls waked, a cold, gray dawn. Through the
half-opened window a wet fog poured into the room. Even without the
burden of uneasiness on their souls, they would not have felt cheerful
at the prospect; and now, leaning on one elbow, Billie, who was the
first to come back to consciousness, stared at the shabby place
incredulously. Was it a bad dream? Where were they? Then memory returned
and she jumped down to the floor. In the night, fears and suspicions had
crowded into her mind, and she was determined to get away from this
terrible Miss Rivers and her lodging house the instant daylight
appeared. As soon as they could find their friends, Miss Rivers should
be paid. In the meantime, they must escape. All these thoughts flew
through Billie's mind while she drew on her shoes.
"Nancy," she said, in a low distinct voice, "get up. We must dress and
escape from this house before that awful woman is awake."
Nancy opened her eyes sleepily.
"Where? What?" she began. "Why, Billie, what is the matter? Are you
ill?" She sat up quickly, suddenly noticing that her friend's face had
turned perfectly white.
"Nancy!" gasped Billie. "Oh, Nancy! Nancy!"
"For heaven's sake, what is it, Billie?" cried the other, reduced to an
irritability from nervousness and fear, which was most unusual with her.
"Our clothes, Nancy, our dresses and coats and hats,--they are gone,"
gasped Billie, "and these are left in their places."
She held up two old, black, bedraggled skirts, one with an immense brown
patch on the front and the other with a jagged tear.
"Nancy, we are among thieves. We must get away as fast as we can. In the
name of goodness, get out of that bed and hurry up."
With that, Billie stepped into the old garment and pinned it around her
waist.
Nancy did not need another warning; in two minutes she stood before her
friend, the very picture of a beggar girl. Even in her misery, Billie
could not keep from smiling faintly at the sight of Nancy Brown, always
so neatly and coquettishly dressed, in this strange attire.
"Thank heavens, they left us our pumps," whispered the young girl,
slipping on her shoes with a feeling of relief.
"Take them off and carry them," whispered Billie. "We don't want to make
a sound. By the way, what time is it?"
She slipped her hand under her pillow for her watch. It was gone with
their brooches and a locket of Nancy's which they had tied in the
handkerchief.
"I might have known that woman was a thief," she whispered, "with those
fishy, shifting little eyes. Come on quickly. The sooner we get out of
here, the better."
Carrying their shoes in their hands, they tripped cautiously into the
hallway. In all the house there was not a sound, and the creaking of
their door as they closed it seemed to their excited nerves as loud as
the report of a pistol. But they safely cleared one flight of stairs and
paused, startled by a long ray of light streaming into the dark hallway
through the keyhole of a door leading to a front bedroom. They had just
time to crouch in the shadow of the landing when the door was opened
quickly and the figure of a man stood silhouetted on the sill.
"Tweedledum is the next, is he?" said a voice within.
"Yes," answered the man in the doorway.
"Who's the man?"
"O'Connor, of course. He'll not be sorry."
"But he's a little young. Has he been told?"
"He will be, soon."
"Good night, or rather good morning. It's been an all-night affair,"
said the voice inside.
"Good day," said the other, and whistling softly, his hands thrust into
his pockets, he strolled down the steps of the lodging house without
noticing two dark figures pressed against the wall in the shadow of the
landing. They waited until they heard the door slam, and then started
once more on their journey downstairs. The conversation they had
overheard was hardly intelligible to them, except for the name O'Connor.
But of course there were thousands of O'Connors in the world.
Nevertheless Billie stored that interview away in her mind. For some
reason she could not forget it, and the words began, subconsciously, to
take a meaning deeper than she knew. To Nancy they meant nothing at all,
and she forgot them in the advent of more important matters.
One more flight of steps and they stood on the second floor. As they
reached the landing, a bell in a neighboring tower clanged out the hour.
It was five o'clock. They must lose no time. The occupants of a poor
lodging house might be stirring in another half hour if not sooner.
In the room by which the two girls were passing at that moment, there
was a sound of hurried footsteps. The door opened slightly and a
querulous voice called:
"Do hurry. You are always slower when you know I'm suffering. I don't
know what I ever did to have such a plain, ungrateful child!"
Involuntarily, the girls paused and listened. Only a few days ago, had
they not heard that same querulous voice?
"Oh, yes," they could remember its saying, "I always stay at the very
best places and go with the very best people. Dear Marie-Jeanne is like
her mother. She only cares for aristocratic society."
But was it possible, in this den of thieves? The door opened wider. Some
one in a long cape appeared and a girl's voice said:
"Do be quiet, mother, I'm going as fast as I can."
Closing the door with an impatient bang, Marie-Jeanne stepped into view.
She was about to pass by the two beggar girls who faced her in the
half-darkness. There were many strange people in this house. She never
inquired into their business and they never inquired into hers. It was
the etiquette of the place. Poor Marie-Jeanne had no curiosity about the
other lodgers. She was only thankful that the house was quiet, for
whatever schemes were hatched or secrets hidden in Miss Felicia Rivers'
abode, it was done without noise. Marie-Jeanne, therefore, without
turning one curious glance at the poor beggar maids, was hurrying past
when Billie seized her arm.
"Don't cry out, Marie-Jeanne," she whispered, "but help us."
"I have no money. I am almost as poor as you. Don't stop me, please. I'm
in a hurry."
"Marie-Jeanne, don't you know us?" whispered Nancy.
The young girl stared into their faces with wide-eyed amazement.
"Billie! Nancy!" she gasped. "Am I dreaming?"
"No," answered Billie. "I wish you were. We've had a dreadful time,
Marie-Jeanne. Let us go out of this place first, before that woman wakes
up."
"What woman?"
"Miss Felicia Rivers."
Marie-Jeanne started.
"I'm very much afraid of her," she said. "So is mother."
The three girls crept down the last flight of steps and out into the
foggy morning. But not until they had reached the nearest pharmacy did
Billie and Nancy tell the tale of their adventures to their friend.
"But why did you choose Miss Felicia Rivers of all names?" she demanded,
when they had finished.
"Because it sounded like the name of a woman. Cousin Helen had written
to for lodgings."
"Good heavens," exclaimed Marie-Jeanne, "what poor memories you have! It
wasn't Felicia Rivers. It was Letitia Lake."
Letitia Lake! What tricks one's memories play! While the sleepy
all-night drug clerk filled the prescription, they looked up Miss
Letitia Lake in the directory. There it was, staring them in the face,
and instantly that name and address were so indelibly graven on their
memories that neither Billie nor Nancy will forget it to her dying day.
"How are we to get there, now we do know the address?" demanded Nancy.
"We don't know the way."
"We must go in a cab," said Billie firmly.
"Do you think two beggar girls could hire a cab?"
"No, this is what you must do," put in Marie-Jeanne, who had gained
wisdom by experience and suffering. "One of you can wear this long cape
of mine and the other can have mother's. It's exactly like this one. I
will lend you what money I have,"--she paused and flushed hotly,--"if
you don't mind my calling very soon to get it back, and the capes, too.
Mother always has a spell when we get into these places where we live on
almost nothing, but the spells never last long, and she may ask for her
cape and the money, too."
"You are the kindest friend in the world, Marie-Jeanne," exclaimed
Billie warmly, "and I hope we can do something for you some day to show
you how much we appreciate it."
Marie-Jeanne smiled with pleasure.
"I must hurry in now," she said shyly. "Mother, when she wants this
medicine and hasn't got it, is nearly wild."
"We will wait for you here, then," said Billie.
Nothing could induce them to enter that awful lodging house again, and
the two girls stood shivering in the wet mist while Marie-Jeanne
hastened away on her errand. The streets were not empty now.
Occasionally a workman passed with a tin pail on his arm; or a tired,
battered old creature whom the girls guessed to be a charwoman. Nobody
even glanced at them in their ragged dresses except a little boy with an
old face, who called out:
"Beggars is out early this morning."
In five minutes Marie-Jeanne returned with the two capes and the money.
"You got out just in time," she said. "I met Miss Rivers in the hall as
I came away. She was going upstairs as fast as she could carry her big
body, no doubt to look into your room and see how you stood the loss of
your belongings."
"What would she have done to us if she had found us there?" asked Nancy.
"There is no telling. She might have turned you out of the house and
denounced you, or she might have been very sweet and sympathizing. But
she would have got out of it in some way."
"Marie-Jeanne, I wish we could take you out of all this," cried Billie
impetuously. "Must you stay in this dreadful place?"
Marie-Jeanne's eyes filled with tears.
"It isn't only poverty that's keeping us here. There is something else.
I can't tell you,--but you must promise me, if you can stand the loss of
your things, not to send the police here. That is the only thing I ask,
because if they came,--the police----" she paused and burst into tears.
"Dear Marie-Jeanne, isn't there any thing we can do?" they asked, but
not another word would the poor girl say. And presently she drew away
from the two girls and hailed a belated hansom. They kissed her good-by,
but she still refused to speak, and giving the address of Miss Letitia
Lake as glibly as if they had known it all their lives, they jumped into
the cab and drove away.
As they turned the corner a sign over a little shop caught their eye. It
read:
_Thomas Dinwiddie,_
_Dealer In Cast-Off Clothing._
In three-quarters of an hour the hansom paused in front of a
fashionable-looking house in a quiet, respectable street, and in another
three minutes Nancy and Billie were laughing and weeping in the arms of
their friends, while some one in the next room was telephoning to the
police station that the two American girls who had been lost were found
at last.