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The hoarse waterman from the cabstand, whose voice had perished in the night air, croaked out at him the offer of a vehicle; and one of the night beggar-women who cling like burrs to those who roam the street a these unhallowed hours still stuck to him, as she had done ever since he had entered the Strand.
He opened the letter, his lashes half-veiling his kind eyes, and saw to his satisfaction that it was a long one wonderfully tactful and tender, even for Adriance, who was tender with his valet and his stable boy, with his old gondolier and the beggar-women who prayed to the saints for him. The letter was from Granada, written in the Alhambra, as he sat by the fountain of the Patio di Lindaraxa.
After the delivery of that sermon, it was observed that he gave a sou every Sunday to the poor old beggar-women at the door of the cathedral. There were six of them to share it. One day the Bishop caught sight of him in the act of bestowing this charity, and said to his sister, with a smile, "There is M. Geborand purchasing paradise for a sou."
The last time she had said, at the first pause, "Now, Fred, I must go. But I want you to contribute a little, if you will, to my poor's library, and if you will, a little, too, to poor Sophia." "Little Sister Minnie," answered Fred, curtly, "don't annoy me. If you enjoy digging out beggar-women, and adorning them with all sorts of comforts and pleasures, do it. I don't ask you not to.
The men were allowed to come in and talk to them, also beggar-women and other vagabonds, who brought them the news from other places. Towards evening and for meals all assembled together in the hall." In the Eyrbyggja Saga we have descriptions of the "fire-hall," skali or eldhus. "The fire-hall was the common sleeping-room in Icelandic homesteads."
Every time I tried to commit my crime somebody came in or somebody started out, and I was prevented; but at last my opportunity came; for one moment there was nobody in the church but the two beggar-women and me. I whipped the gold piece out of the poor old pauper's palm and dropped my Turkish penny in its place. Poor old thing, she murmured her thanks they smote me to the heart.
"Come along to my room, and I'll tell you." "Round in Ewing street?" "Yes. Great game up, if I can only get on the track." "What is it?" "There's a cast-off baby in Dirty Alley, and Fan Bray knows its mother, and she's rich." "What?" "Fan's getting lots of hush-money." "Goody! but that is game!" "Isn't it? The baby's owned by two beggar-women who board it in Dirty Alley.
Be there in the afternoon when it strikes two! Then I'll tell you something." With that she quickly whipped the cloth round her head again, and whisked out of the room, shuffling and scraping all the way down the long corridor as beggar-women do. Michal remained behind, tormented by agonizing doubts. What did this woman, who had so much power over her, mean to do with her?
They knew what it was to hope and despair; they knew what it was to reflect that with each of them life might and ought to have been different; they even knew what it was sometimes to envy the beggar-women on the doorstep of the Limes who asked for a penny and clasped a child to her breast. We mistake our ancestors who read Pope and the Spectator.
"Yes, to two beggar-women, who use it every day, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, and get drunk on the money they receive, lying all night in some miserable den." Mrs. Dinneford gave a little shiver. "What becomes of the baby when they are not using it?" she asked. "They pay a woman a dollar a week to take care of it at night." "Do you know where this woman lives?" "Yes."
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