"Not driven far at all events," said Leveson. "Now suppose you tell me all that happened, and why you think it is Vi, so that I may know how to act."
"Think! I know it is Vi," sobbed Mrs. Therlock. "My own little darling. So shivering, and poorly clad, and half-starved; but I knew her—I knew her—I should know her anywhere."
"Know her by what?"
"Her face, her eyes, her mouth, her dimples,—the very manner—that quaint timid manner. She is the most perfect image of the old likeness taken of me when I was eight years old. And you know how like to me Vi was always considered. She has hardly changed in the least—only so thin and white, my poor little precious one. To think she should have been living near, and I to know nothing about it! But there is no possibility of a mistake. I know—I am certain it is her. Vi! Vi! How am I to get my child?"
"Mother, if you excite yourself so much, I shall not dare to talk to you on the subject," said Leveson. "I am afraid you will make yourself ill. Try to be quiet, while Josie tells me how it came about. Tell me all you know about the little girl, dear."
"Why, you know that starving child I saw once," said Josie. "And the day before yesterday—no, yesterday evening—afternoon I mean—"
"Tell me gently. Don't be in a hurry—" For Josie hardly seemed to know what she was saying.
"Yesterday I met her, just in the same place as before, and close to the same fountain. I have shown you the place, you know. Nurse was a little way behind, but I stopped and spoke to her, and she said she was starving again. She had been living with an old man up in a garret, she said, and she called him 'grandfather,' because he was so good to her. And I asked after her mother, but she never came back at all, after she was set free from jail.
"I had spent my shilling, and I had no money, so I told her to come to-day for some food. And this morning I was up in my room, when I heard the front door opened, and Harrison saying something about not wanting beggars. So I called out that the little girl wasn't to go away, but was to have the basket of food, which I had put out for her before breakfast, and was to wait in the hall till I came down, because nurse was mending my frock just then."
"And you thought it was the child you had seen before?"