“I think I can sleep now,” she said to herself, so soothed and tranquilized as she rose from her knees that it no longer seemed dreadful to be left there alone.
The moon was rising, and there was light enough for her to pick out a corner seat which was more roomy than the others, and, curling her feet under her, she soon forgot her trials in a sweet, healthy sleep which bridged the time so thoroughly that, when the station-master’s key turned in the door, she thought he had come back for some forgotten duty.
“All right, sis?” he asked, rather anxiously, flashing the lantern around the room.
“O, yes, thank you, sir; and I’ve had a nice sleep,” was the answer, as Marion slipped her feet upon the floor hastily and began to walk about.
There was the sound of wheels not long after, and, suspecting what it meant, she slipped out of the waiting-room and, standing in the deep shadows of the building, watched the sphinx and her party arrive.
The man sprang out first and said something so softly she could not hear, but she heard Elfie’s voice fretfully objecting to something. The man seemed to be trying to induce her to come to him, and finally reached in and lifted her out gently. Marion almost screamed as the light from a window fell on the little head, from which the beautiful long curls had been closely shorn, and lit up the shivering figure that was now dressed in boy’s clothes.
“Come along with me, Johnny, boy,” said Madame Belotti, jumping hastily from the carriage and lifting the seeming boy in her arms.
“He needs more medicine,” said the man, significantly, “some nice, sweet medicine to make Johnny sleep good.”
Then going into the empty waiting-room he carefully dropped something from a vial upon a lump of sugar, which the woman persuaded Elfie to take.
Marion, watching through the window, felt sure they were drugging the child to make her sleep, and was in agonies of fear lest they should give her a dangerous quantity. The poor child looked sick, too; grief and fear and perhaps the frequent administration of the quieting drops had made her pale and dejected. She seemed very docile, and laid her head on the woman’s shoulder as directed and soon fell asleep.