The second evening, this lady proposed that Freddie should sleep with her as she was alone in her berth and it would give Mrs. Moberly more room. Freddie was delighted with the idea, so it was arranged. Mira and the other children had slept well all night and were aroused by the porter, announcing that she should get off at the next city. She dressed herself, then the two children and started to find Freddie. She found that no such persons had been seen since the middle of the night when a man, woman and child had left the train. From the description of the man she knew it was Jack. They also said they heard the child call him papa. Poor Mira! And this was her homecoming, her poor little child at the mercy of that man!
Just then the name of the city was announced and all left the train. Everything was changed and strange to her, but there was Tom, dear old Tom. He would know just what to do about Freddie, and there was her mother and Scoris. They didn’t know her and were looking in every direction, but there she was. At last she reached them and tried to attract their attention but it was too much for her and she fainted at their feet. All was confusion and even then they could not recognize her, she had changed so much. Nellie explained, “It is because Freddie has gone. Papa took him away last night.” She began to cry, for this was not the introduction she had pictured in meeting her grandma or the aunts and Uncle Tom. The family then realized that it was Mira and her family that was before them. They had her carried into the waiting room until she recovered consciousness; then when she told them what had occurred Tom promised to find him. She told them about her life in the six years since she had left them.
They tried to show her it was necessary to keep up her strength so that at the proper time she could give the information that would be needed not only in regard to Jack, but the woman who had assisted in stealing the child.
Detectives were sent out and Mira began to rally, yet no clue amounted to anything. Disappointments seemed to be the order of the day. Nothing resulted from any clue they were given. Advertisements also failed, and she often wondered, “Had he followed, or had he seen them by chance?” All the misery she had endured was as nothing to this terrible uncertainty of the child being uncared for, and the longing to see him once more was intense.
“Freddie, my boy, my boy,” she would cry out in her agony, “I must, I must see you.”
CHAPTER XV.
Mrs. Vivian, Scoris and Helen had been living in the colony for two years before Mira came. Scoris still did drawings for illustrations and Helen was doing well at writing for magazines and the society paper.
Their apartments were nicely fitted up, each one having one room, while they shared the parlor together. They had intended to secure one more room for they often had their meals sent to them when they were unusually busy, instead of going down to the dining room, but since Mira and her children arrived they all saw that she must have help.
She couldn’t live in the same apartment building because children were not allowed there nor were the conveniences the same as in those built for children. They had tried to persuade her to leave them in the nursery and for her to live with them, but she couldn’t be separated from them at night. Jack might come and steal them, she said. “They are all right in the daytime, but at night I must have them in sight.”
“Poor girl,” her mother had said, “we can do without the extra room and secure two for her, besides help to provide for the children.”