She was rather strange and indifferent at first, and then she
seemed to take a fancy to me."
"That's queer!" said Patty, smiling fondly and giving Waitstill's
hair the hasty brush of a kiss.
"She told me she had had a girl baby, born two or three years
after Ivory, and that she had always thought it died when it was
a few weeks old. Then suddenly she came closer to me--
"Oh! Waity, weren't you terrified?"
"No, not in the least. Neither would you have been if you had
been there. She put her arms round me and all at once I
understood that the poor thing mistook me just for a moment for
her own daughter come back to life. It was a sudden fancy and I
don't think it lasted, but I didn't know how to deal with it, or
contradict it, so I simply tried to soothe her and let her ease
her heart by talking to me. She said when I left her: 'Where is
your house? I hope it is near! Do come again and sit with me.
Strength flows into my weakness when you hold my hand!' I somehow
feel, Patty, that she needs a woman friend even more than a
doctor. And now, what am I to do? How can I forsake her; and yet
here is this new difficulty with father?"
"I shouldn't forsake her; go there when you can, but be more
careful about it.
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