Hephzy shook her head. “I don't know, Hosy,” she admitted. “I don't know, I'm sure. This is—this is—Oh, didn't I tell you we were SENT—sent by Providence!”
I was silent. If we had been “sent,” as she called it, I was far from certain that Providence was responsible. I was more inclined to place the responsibility in a totally different quarter.
“I think,” she continued, “I think you'd better tell me the whole thing all over again, Hosy. Tell it slow and don't leave out a word. Tell me what sort of place she was in and what she said and how she looked, as near as you can remember. I'll try and pay attention; I'll try as hard as I can. It'll be a job. All I can think of now is that to-morrow mornin'—only to-morrow mornin'—I'm going to see Little Frank—Ardelia's Little Frank.”
I complied with her request, giving every detail of my afternoon's experience. I reread the letter, and handed it to her, that she might read it herself. I described Mrs. Briggs and what I had seen of Mrs. Briggs' lodging-house. I described Miss Morley as best I could, dark eyes, dark hair and the look of weakness and frailty. I repeated our conversation word for word; I had forgotten nothing of that. Hephzy listened in silence. When I had finished she sighed.
“The poor thing,” she said. “I do pity her so.”
“Pity her!” I exclaimed. “Well, perhaps I pity her, too, in a way. But my pity and yours don't alter the situation. She doesn't want pity. She doesn't want help. She flew at me like a wildcat when I asked if she was ill. Her personal affairs, she says, are not ours; she doesn't want our acquaintance or our friendship. She has gotten some crazy notion in her head that you and I and Uncle Barnabas have cheated her out of an inheritance, and she wants that! Inheritance! Good Lord! A fine inheritance hers is! Daughter of the man who robbed us of everything we had.”
“I know—I know. But SHE doesn't know, does she, Hosy. Her father must have told her—”
“He told her a barrel of lies, of course. What they were I can't imagine, but that fellow was capable of anything. Know! No, she doesn't know now, but she will have to know.”
“Are you goin' to tell her, Hosy?”
I stared in amazement.