Debby breathed painfully. "Well!" she whispered.
"But I said people were liars. You are good!"
"Oh, Esther, Esther!" sobbed Debby, kissing the earnest little face with a vehemence that surprised the child.
"I think father only said that," Esther went on, "because he fancies I neglect Sarah and Isaac when he's at Shool and they quarrel so about their birthdays when they're together. But they don't slap one another hard. I'll tell you what! Suppose I bring Sarah down here!"
"Well, but won't she cry and be miserable here, if you read, and with no Isaac to play with?"
"Oh no," said Esther confidently. "She'll keep Bobby company."
Bobby took kindly to little Sarah also. He knew no other dogs and in such circumstances a sensible animal falls back on human beings. He had first met Debby herself quite casually and the two lonely beings took to each other. Before that meeting Dutch Debby was subject to wild temptations. Once she half starved herself and put aside ninepence a week for almost three months and purchased one-eighth of a lottery ticket from Sugarman the Shadchan, who recognized her existence for the occasion. The fortune did not come off.
Debby saw less and less of Esther as the months crept on again towards winter, for the little girl feared her hostess might feel constrained to offer her food, and the children required more soothing. Esther would say very little about her home life, though Debby got to know a great deal about her school-mates and her teacher.
One summer evening after Esther had passed into the hands of Miss Miriam
Hyams she came to Dutch Debby with a grave face and said: "Oh, Debby.
Miss Hyams is not a heroine."
"No?" said Debby, amused. "You were so charmed with her at first."