"What will we do," sighed Miss Ruth, "for the more the child is asked, the more perplexed we get, and now——"
"Sure an' we'll ask Mrs. Buckley, Rosy's sister, an' she'll tell us all about it," said the practical Mrs. O'Malligan. "I remember well of her tellin' me of the foine wages Rosy was a-gittin; along of her goin' off so fur wid some rich lady as a nurse."
At this hopeful point the doctor interfered, thinking best to prevent any further exciting of his patient, and accordingly wheeled her back to her ward, leaving the others to soothe the terror of the child, at seeing hope vanish with Rosy.
Pausing outside the big hospital in a trembling and excited little group, Miss Stannard detailed her plans. As the snow was coming down steadily, Miss Bonkowski should return to the Tenement at once with the excited, sobbing child, and Mrs. O'Malligan should take Miss Ruth to find Mrs. Buckley, the sister of poor Rosy O'Brien.
*****
"And do you know," explained Miss Ruth that evening, to Mr. Dilke, who had fallen into a way of calling quite frequently indeed, of late, "and do you know, this woman, this Mrs. Buckley would not believe us, but insisted that her sister, Rosy O'Brien, as well as the child her sister had nursed, were drowned in that terrible ferry-boat disaster last July. After what seemed to me hours of catechising, I got the story from her.
"A year ago, as I finally found out, her sister, this same Rosy O'Brien, went South with a Mr. and Mrs. De Leon Breaux, whose child she had been nursing at Narragansett during the summer.
"This spring, Mrs. Buckley, living then in the Tenement where the child was afterward found, received a letter from Rosy, saying she would be in the city with her mistress for a few days in July on their way to the seashore for the summer.
"Meanwhile Mrs. Buckley moved, and being unable to write, left her new address with Mrs. O'Malligan. But the summer passing and no Rosy appearing, in September Mrs. Buckley grew anxious and got a friend to write to the Breaux' address for her, inclosing a letter to Rosy.
"In answer came a reply from Mr. Breaux, which letter Mrs. Buckley showed me. It stated that on the seventh of last July Rosy O'Brien and the child, 'our little Angelique,' the letter called her, had been drowned while crossing the river on the ferry.