No matter what was the question put to her, her reply was ''ess,' which
she repeated quickly, with a prolonged sound on the 's.'
When at last Mr. St. Claire took his leave, it was with a strange
feeling of interest for the child, whose antecedents must always be
shrouded in mystery, and whose future he could not predict.
It seemed impossible for Mrs. Crawford to keep her, poor as she was, and
as he had no idea that the Tracys would take her, there was no
alternative but the poor-house, unless he took her himself and brought
her up with his own little five-year-old Nina. He would wait until after
the funeral and see, he decided, as he went back to his home at Brier
Hill, where his children, Dick and Nina, were eager to hear all he had
to tell them of the poor little girl whose mother had been frozen to
death.
The next morning the sleigh from Tracy Park stopped before the cottage
door, and Frank, who had been to meet the coroner, alighted from it. He
was pale and haggard as he entered the room where Jerry was playing on
the floor with Harold's Maltese kitten. As he came in she looked up at
him, and, lifting her hand, swept the hair back from her forehead just
as she had done the day before when Mr. St. Claire was there. The
peculiar motion had struck the latter as something familiar, though he
could not define it; but Frank did, or in his nervous condition he
thought he did, and his knees shook so he could hardly stand as he
talked with Mrs.
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