As the old woman fell back upon her pillow, shedding tears of imbecile rage, a knock came to the door, for the first time in many days.
The cat listened a moment with her paws fastened greedily on the fragment of food, and her ears thrown back. The chickens drew in their lank necks and huddled together in the back of their little coop; and the old woman cried out piteously, and yet with a tremor of rage in her voice,—“Come in, whoever you are. Welcome, in the name of the blessed Virgin!”
The door opened, and a woman entered the room firmly, and with the demeanor of one who had a right there. Her dress was very humble, and made after a fashion that had prevailed years before. A large bonnet of pink silk, now faded and crushed, was on her head; a fall of discolored blonde lace, once very costly, half shaded her features; and a mantilla of antique voluminousness fell over a dress of soiled calico.
“Who are you? and what do you come for?” inquired Madame De Marke, striving to support herself on one elbow in the bed, while she shaded her eyes with the other hand. “Has anybody heard that I was sick? Why didn’t they send me a Sister of Mercy?”
“I am all the sister of mercy you’ll be likely to get to take care of you in this world or the next,” replied her visitor, looking around the room with a smile of grim satisfaction. “All right! So you are sick and want help—hungry and want food. I like that. It goes a good way toward convincing me that there is a just God, and I don’t like to give up that idea altogether, though he did make such creatures as you are.”
The old woman uttered a sort of hiss, and clenched the hand she had lost all strength to threaten with.
“I know you. Yes, yes! I know you well enough now, Jane Kelly. Your time in State’s Prison is up, and you’ve come here to insult me on my sick-bed. That’s brave of you now, isn’t it?—mighty brave!”
“I came here because I had no other home to go to, and because you owe me money that I will have: and I owe you punishment for all the wickedness you have heaped on me, which you are sure to get. It’s settling-day between us.”
“What do you want? What do you mean? I don’t owe you anything. I never did anything against you, Jane Kelly, never in my whole life. On the contrary, I always liked you, and when that impertinent policeman would take you up, and the judge insisted on sentencing you, I did my best to buy you off. It was all because you wouldn’t do all that we bargained for, that you fell into trouble. But you are a good-hearted creature, Jane, and won’t bear malice against a poor, harmless old woman for what she couldn’t help. Come, take off your bonnet, Jane, and find a chair. I’m so glad you came.”
Jane took off her bonnet, and revealed a crop of short, black hair, which she shook at the old woman with a malignant laugh.