“But Titus is going with us.”
“Oh, Lor’, mist’ess! yo’ doane say so? Oh, aine I glad!”
“Yes. Now run away, or it will be too late for you to get admission to the hospital.”
Tom only waited until he reached the sidewalk before he turned a somersault for joy, stood on his head, and kicked, toppled over, picked himself up, and ran, leaping and dancing, to the corner of Fourteenth Street, to take the car for the Children’s Hospital.
That afternoon Roma found her first opportunity of questioning Owlet. She heard every detail of her abduction from Goblin Hall, her journey, and her sojourn in New York, that the child knew, and, much more than any one else, had been able to draw from her.
All Miss Fronde’s worst suspicions were confirmed, and she resolved to defend little Owlet against Hanson, even if she should have to do so in the courts of justice, as the child’s “best friend.” She also emphasized her resolution to take the orphan to Scotland with her, and to bring her, if possible, to the acquaintance of that austere ancestress of whom poor Marguerite Nouvellini had spoken with so much awe. She had written three letters to that great lady, but had received no answers.
All the remainder of that week Roma spent in making her purchases and other preparations for the sanitorium; in doing all of which she was advised and assisted by Dr. Washburn.
By Tuesday evening all these goods had been packed and shipped on board the John Gordon, bound from the port of Georgetown to Norfolk and New York, and taking in the Isle of Storms, with other points, in its course.
She had also engaged passage for herself and friends on the same comfortable little boat.
The events of the voyage will be chronicled in the third and last of this series, under the title of “To His Fate,” published in cloth binding, uniform with this volume.