It had rained last night at Paulding, but snow had fallen in Millville, the last light fall of the season. Parrot Street wasn’t, therefore, so unsavory as usual; but the building in which the doctor had his office seemed to have grown far more ramshackle in the interval. Betty supposed it was only that she had rather forgotten how dismal it was; and of course the clean white snow made it the more conspicuous. But within, she was sure that it was far worse. The stairs fairly made her shudder. Wherefore, her heart sank the more sickeningly when she tried the door and found it fast.
“The catch must be down,” she said to Rose as she knocked lightly. “Of course he wouldn’t be expecting us after three weeks—four to-day. And he’s probably busy with someone else.”
She knocked again. Still there was no response. The silence was so oppressive that when she knocked more sharply she was startled by the reverberation.
“Nobody home!” observed Rose coolly.
“He’s probably just stepped out to get something,” Betty explained. “Of course with that battery and the eye-cup and all those valuable things, he’d just have to lock the door. We’ll wait, Rose dear.”
Presently Rose suggested that Dr. Vandegrift might be within and had fallen asleep. Whereupon Betty began pounding upon the door. Still nothing happened. She kept it up for some time until Rose put a warning hand on her shoulder.
“Listen, Betty, what’s that?” she asked. Betty listened. A voice came up from below.
“Saaye, Mees! Saaye, Mees!” it called, and taking Rose’s arm, Betty led her down. At the foot of the stair, she saw a slatternly-looking foreign woman who smiled and moved her hands in sweeping gestures.
“Go-o,” she said, rolling her eyes grotesquely. “Go-o, go-o. Saaye, mees, cop! cop!”
“What does she mean, Rose?” Betty whispered.