“Norry,” she whispered, “give Miss Francie some jam for her tea to-night, but don’t tell Miss Charlotte.”
“What’s that she’s saying?” said Charlotte, going to the other side of the bed. “Is she asking for me?”
“No, but for Miss Francie,” Norry answered.
“She knows as well as I do that Miss Francie’s in Dublin,” said Charlotte roughly; “’twas Susan she was asking for last. Here, a’nt, here’s Susan for you.”
She pulled the cat down from her shoulder, and put him on the bed, where he crouched with a twitching tail, prepared for flight at a moment’s notice.
He was within reach of the old lady’s hand, but she did not seem to know that he was there. She opened her eyes and looked vacantly round.
“Where’s little Francie? You mustn’t send her away, Charlotte; you promised you’d take care of her; didn’t you, Charlotte?”
“Yes, yes,” said Charlotte quickly, pushing the cat towards the old lady; “never fear, I’ll see after her.”
Old Mrs. Mullen’s eyes, that had rested with a filmy stare on her niece’s face, closed again, and her head began to move a little from one side to the other, a low monotonous moan coming from her lips with each turn. Charlotte took her right hand and laid it on the cat’s brindled back. It rested there, unconscious, for some seconds, while the two women looked on in silence, and then the fingers drooped and contracted like a bird’s claw, and the moaning ceased. There was at the same time a spasmodic movement of the gathered-up knees, and a sudden rigidity fell upon the small insignificant face.
Norry the Boat threw herself upon her knees with a howl, and began to pray loudly. At the sound the cat leaped to the floor, and the hand that had been placed upon him in the only farewell his mistress was to take, dropped stiffly on the bed. Miss Charlotte snatched up the candle, and held it close to her aunt’s face. There was no mistaking what she saw there, and, putting down the candle again, she plucked a large silk handkerchief from her pocket, and, with some hideous preliminary heavings of her shoulders, burst into transports of noisy grief.