"What is your name?" inquired the young prisoner.
"Mary Brown, if you please, miss," answered the woman in her kind, soothing tone.
"You live here, I suppose, Mary?" pursued the young girl.
"Yes, miss."
"Then, Mary, I wish you would tell me what kind of a house this is. I have been fancying that it must be a hospital, as there seems to be a resident physician. Am I right?"
"Oh! yes, miss, certainly, this is a hospital. We have a number of sick people here," said the woman, like one humoring an inquisitive child. "But don't you wish to retire now, miss? It's about midnight I should think."
"In a minute, Mary. Tell me first, is it a public hospital?"
"Oh! no, miss. It's perfectly private, and very select indeed. We receive none but first-class people here—we don't indeed."
She was turning down the covers of the bed as she spoke, and now she said, persuasively: