"I says Blooma is a pretty good name already," he murmured, smiling faintly, and the next moment he sank into a light sleep.
When he awoke Miss Duckman still sat by the side of his bed, her fingers busy over the hem of a sheet, and he glanced nervously at the window through which the late afternoon sun came streaming.
"Ain't it pretty late you should be away from the Home?" he inquired. "It must be pretty near six, ain't it?"
"I know it," Miss Duckman said; "and the doctor says at six you should take this here powder."
"Aber shouldn't you got to be getting ready to go back to the Home?" he asked.
Miss Duckman shook her head.
"I ain't going back no more," she answered. "I got enough of them people."
Rudnik looked helplessly at her.
"But what would you do?" he said. "You ain't got no other place to go to, otherwise you wouldn't got to live in a Home."
"Sure, I know," she replied as she prepared to give him his powder; "but Gott sei dank I still got my health, and I am telling the lady superintendent here how they work me at the Home, and she says I could stop here till I am finding something to do. I could cook already and I could sew already, and if the worser comes to the worst I could find a job in an underwear factory. They don't pay much, but a woman like me she don't eat much. All I want is I could get a place to sleep, and I bet yer I could make out fine. So you should please take the powder."