She smiled, waved her hand, and vanished into the queer house which she had made a palace.
It was some time before Adelaide could recover from the shock of the apparition at the window, though we assured her that it was probably only the trained nurse; and we afterward ascertained that it was in reality Mrs. Halsey, who had come to the window for a moment to greet the glad new day, and who was now as joyful as she had been despairing. So much tension of feeling, so great extremes of joy and sorrow, had affected her deeply, and she wept out her gratitude on Miss Prillwitz's sympathizing heart. "You have been very good to him," Mrs. Halsey said, with emotion. "Some time, when the past all comes back to me, as I am sure it will some day, I may be able to return your kindness."
Mrs. Halsey had made several mysterious allusions to the past, and Miss Prillwitz, who had a kindly way of gaining the confidence of everyone, said sweetly, "Tell me about your early life, my tear."
"It is a strange story," Mrs. Halsey replied. "I had a happy childhood and girlhood, and a happy married life up to the time that my dear parents died, and even after that, for my husband was the best of men, and I had a sweet little daughter. Their faces come back to me, waking and sleeping, though I have lost them, I sometimes fear, forever."
"Did they die?" Miss Prillwitz asked.
"No, dear, I think not; but now comes the strange part of my story: I remember a journey vaguely, and a steamer disaster, a night of horror with fire and water, and then all is a frightful blank; a curtain of blackness seems to have fallen on all my past life. I am told that I was rescued from the burning of a Sound steamer, with my baby-boy in my arms, and given shelter by some kindly farmer folk. I had received an injury—a blow on the head—and had brain-fever, from which I recovered in body, but with a disordered mind, my memory shattered; I could remember faces, but not names. I could not tell the name of the town in which I had lived, or my own name. I remained with the kind people who first received me for several months, but I did not wish to be a burden to them, and I hoped that I might find my home. I knew that it had been in a city, and I felt sure that if I ever saw any of my old surroundings, or old friends I would recognize them at once. It was thought, too, that New York physicians might help me, so I came to New York, and my case was advertised in the papers. But months had passed since the accident, and my friends either did not see the advertisement, or did not recognize me in the story given. The doctors at the hospital pronounced me incurable, and I was discharged. I wandered up and down the streets, but although I felt sure that I had been in New York before, I could not find my home. I read the names on the signs, hoping to recognize my own name, but I never came across it. Meantime I took the name of Halsey; it was necessary for me to live, and I knew that I could sew, and that I had a faculty for designing; and seeing Madame Céleste's advertisement for a designer, I applied at once for the situation. It seemed to me at first that I had seen Madame Céleste before, but she was repellent in manner, and I did not dare question her, and gradually that impression faded. I hired a woman to take care of Jim, and though he was not well cared for, he lived, and we got on until he was large enough to play upon the streets. Then I took him home to the little room in Rickett's Court, and finding that I could not be with him as much as he needed, I gave up my place at Madame Céleste's and worked at first for the costumer, where the young ladies found me, and afterward tried to keep soul and body together by taking sewing home. It was the life of a galley-slave, but I did not care so long as I could keep my boy at school, and with me out of school hours. But I could not do that, for to earn the money which was absolutely necessary for our support Jim had to work too, and driving the milkman's cart in the early morning was the best we could find for him out of school hours. He was so proud and happy to do it, and to help earn for us both; but, as you know, it cut into his hours for sleep, and left him no time to study. Oh! I was nearly in despair, when God sent you as angels to my help and Jim's."
"And have you never been able to guess what your old name was?" Miss Prillwitz asked.
"Never; sometimes it seems to me that I remember it in my dreams, but when I awake it is gone; still, I cannot help feeling that I shall find my own again. Sometimes there comes a great inward illumination, and the curtain seems to be lifting. I cannot think they have forgotten me—my husband tender and true, and my little girl with the great questioning eyes."
Miss Prillwitz did not share Mrs. Halsey's confidence, but her sympathy was enlisted, and she caressed and comforted Mrs. Halsey. "It shall be as you hope, my tear; if not just now and here, zen surely by and by, and zat is not very long. And meantime you have found some friends, ze young ladies and me, and ze Elder Brother have found you, and we are all one family, so you can be no longer lonely and wizout relation, even in zis world."