Mrs. Ferris looked troubled again, as if she were trying to recall events and could not. “Don’t you think you’d better call up and see if you can find Laura, Bessie? Tell her I want to see her. Oh, I do want to see Laura so much.”
“Of course,” soothingly said the nurse, addressed as Bessie. Mrs. Ferris thought her her maid as formerly. “Shall I open the box, Miss Lucia?”
But Lucia was already taking the cover from the box and disclosing the doll in its tissue wrappings. “See, Grandmother, it hasn’t a thing to wear. I could have gotten dressed dolls, but I had to dress this myself—only I mean Giovanna to do the sewing!” Lucia made a comical face at her “grandmother,” who laughed. “That is just like you, Laura. You were always a hand to get out of work.”
Turning to Betty, Mrs. Ferris continued. “You know, Mary, that I used to do all the work for Laura and her father and the other children. That was before Mr. Ferris made so much money and the children died, all but Laura. Why, Laura, let me get some of your little brother’s things for this baby. Bessie, go to the lower drawer in my mahogany highboy and get me something to dress this child with! There is a long white dress there that Willie was baptized in, and a flannel shirt and bands and embroidered skirts. Bring everything there is!”
Lucia looked troubled, but Mrs. Ferris had only a happy expression as she cradled the doll in her arms. Bessie, who knew that there were no baby clothes in the highboy, also knew where they were to be found. “Wait a moment, Mrs. Ferris,” said she, as she slipped out from the door and flew up to the attic with the key to a trunk. What a blessing it would be if this doll would prove a distraction! But one never could tell.
Lucia glanced around uneasily, but saw, through a door that stood ajar, that the maid was moving about there and was within call. “Do you think the doll pretty, Grandmother!” she asked. But Mrs. Ferris was now turning the doll over with a puled expression. “Its hair is so long,” she said.
Then Lucia had a bright idea. “Wait till I get the other doll they sent out,” she said, “I decided to take this one because I think it is prettier. But perhaps you will like the other better. It looks like a real baby.”
“Oh, yes,” said Mrs. Ferris, still puled.
“Lina,” called Lucia, “come here a minute, will you?”
The maid who was in the bedroom beyond, entered at once and needed no direction as she saw the situation. “I’m going down after another doll, Lina,” said Lucia. “Just wait, Betty.”