“No, it was not through the war. It was since the war.”
“Oh, yes! My dear child, tell me all you wish, but no more than you wish. I will help you in any case. Indeed I will. Are you an orphan, my dear?”
“Oh, ma’am, I am much worse than orphaned,” said Lilith.
“Dear me! Poor child! How worse than orphaned, my dear?”
“Oh, ma’am, I cannot tell you now. Indeed I cannot. Do not blame me, and do not be angry. It is not my fault that I am so desolate and that I must be so reserved about my past life,” pleaded Lilith.
The lady fell to musing.
“I wonder what has happened to the child? That she is good I can see for myself. Nobody could make a mistake about her. I wonder what she means by worse than orphaned, now. I wonder if her father was hanged or sent to prison for life, or anything like that. There are so many men who ought to be gentlemen, but who come to that sort of end now, that I should not be surprised that it was so. Why, there is always something of that sort going on in some city or other, some bank defaulter, or some forger, or manslaughterer, or something. And so it seems more than likely that her father may have disgraced his family in that way, and be in prison, or in a felon’s grave, and that’s what she means by being worse than orphaned. But her mother—— Is your mother living, my poor child?” she inquired, suddenly breaking the long silence and addressing Lilith.
“No, ma’am. My mother left this world a few hours after I came into it,” said Lilith.
“Poor, dear darling!” said the good woman, who then relapsed into silent thought, drawing her own conclusions.
“Yes, that is it!” she said to herself. “The mother gone, the father worse than dead! That must be it, or she would not talk of being worse than orphaned.”