"You poor little child," said Miss Barnes, "let me go and call the matron, and we'll talk this over."
"Maggie can't go back," decided Edna. "She would be beat to death, and so would Moggins."
After a long consultation with the matron, and innumerable questions, it was arranged that Maggie should remain till Miss Barnes had seen Mrs. Horner. "And Moggins, too," stipulated Edna.
But the matron shook her head. "Then I'll have to take him home with me," said Edna, though in her heart she had many misgivings as to what Aunt Elizabeth would say.
Poor little Maggie stood with quivering lips as she saw her only friends depart; but the good matron set before her a generous bowl of mush and milk and the half-starved child, after receiving the assurance that all possible should be done for her, accepted matters quietly.
It was a very weary little girl whom Miss Barnes held by the hand as the two stopped at the door of the four-story house opposite the square.
"Shure! it's yersel'," cried Ellen, as she answered the bell. "Mrs. Horner's called out a-suddint, me dear, an' phwat'll she say to yer shtayin' so long? Phwat's that ye have?"
"O, it's Moggins; won't you take him and give him some milk? And, O Ellen, I'm so hungry!"
"The pore dear," returned Ellen, taking the kitten tenderly.
"I'll find Uncle Justus," said Edna, as she ushered Miss Barnes into the sitting-room, and, having brought her uncle, she ran to get something to eat from Ellen, for the kind-hearted maid had saved the child's dinner for her.