“Who is it?” she asked, going close to the door, but not unlocking it.
“Is there anny wan at all in the room?” was the answer.
“Well, it’d take more sinse than there is in mesilf to know who ‘Oi’ is. It is mebby the young leddy the dark tould us took board here from yisterday till the day, and has never come to the dining-room yit for a drink nor a crumb?”
“Yes, that’s me,” said Marion, thinking hard over an idea that had suggested itself to her, and which she decided to follow if the owner of the voice that was answering her looked trustworthy. She opened the door enough then to get a peep at a big, good-natured Irish woman with the fine, fresh coloring and innocent, unsophisticated look that is only worn by the newest importations from the “swatest gim o’ the say.” One look at the pleasant, honest face determined her.
“Will you do me a favor?” she asked very softly, fearing terribly that the sound of her voice might rouse Elfie into a wild outcry.
“That will Oi, indade that will Oi,” was the quick response, made more cheerful, perhaps, by seeing a half-dollar held out in Marion’s fingers. “Is it breakfast ye’ll be wanting brought up till yer room?”
“Yes, I do wish you’d bring me up some breakfast,” said Marion, thinking more of Elfie than herself, “and a glass of milk with it, for I don’t want to go to the dining-room. But that was not the favor I meant; I want you to go over to the restaurant across the street for me and tell Mrs. Jones that the little girl who mended stockings for her yesterday afternoon is not well, and if she will come over here for a few minutes; and please bring her right up to this room. After that you may bring me up the breakfast, please.”
“Really, it is true, I am not well,” said Marion to herself, in excuse for the plea upon which she had summoned Mrs. Jones, who, in about five minutes, came lumbering up the stairs, quite out of breath with their steepness.
Her fat, honest face looked full of sympathy as she came in the room, escorted by the maid, who shut the door and left them together.