“Here, honey, just sip this. Strong, I know, and not the finest, but ’twill set you up, quick. I know. There, there.”
Moved by the same instinct which had made Bonny-Gay accept her crust dinner, Mrs. McClure drank the scalding liquid and did, indeed, revive under it. Then the doctor and the Gray Gentleman lifted the injured child and placed her gently upon the carriage seat.
Seeing which, the mother hastily rose and followed, supported still, though unnoticed on her part, by the strong arms of the other mother whose sympathetic tears were now silently flowing; even while her cheery voice reiterated, much to the surgeon’s disgust:
“Never you fear, dear lady. She’ll be as right as a trivet. Aye, indeed; she’ll be talking to you before you get to your own house. Yes, indeed. We poor folks see many an accident and mostly they don’t amount to much; even my Mary Jane—”
But there was Mary Jane herself just as the carriage door was closing, thrusting something white and feather-trimmed into the pale lady’s lap.
“Her hat, lady. Bonny-Gay’s best hat!”
Mrs. McClure was as kind hearted as most, yet at that moment she was already unstrung, and the glimpse she caught of poor Mary Jane’s deformity shocked her afresh. Without intending it she did shrink away from contact with so “repulsive” a child and Mrs. Bump saw the movement. Her own face hardened and she withdrew her arm from supporting the stranger to clasp it about her own child.
But Mary Jane saw nothing, save that Bonny-Gay was being carried away without her beautiful headgear, and again she thrust it eagerly forward.
“Her hat! Her lovely hat! She mustn’t go without her Sunday hat!”
It was the sweetest, most sympathetic of voices and almost startling to the rich woman, coming as it did from such a source. It made her take a second look at the cripple and this time, fortunately, the glance rested upon the child’s fine, spiritual face. An instant regret for the repugnance she had first felt shot through Mrs. McClure’s mind and leaning from the carriage window she dropped the hat upon Mary Jane’s dark head.