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Updated: May 9, 2025
She was always half expecting to hear that he had been apprehended in some sort of mischief, that he had been accused of some crime. But she dismissed the idea quickly his composure was too real to be born of bravado. It was while her brain groped for some new solution that she became conscious of Mrs. Volsky's voice. "Oh, he ain't," the woman was moaning, "say he ain't! My man he could not be so!
She told of the saving of Ella she told of Bennie, explaining that he was the same child whom the Young Doctor had met in the hall. She told of Mrs. Volsky's effort to better herself, and of Jim's snake-like smoothness. And then she told of Lily Lily with her almost unearthly beauty and her piteous physical condition.
"Lily," she said slowly, "can't spick 'r hear.... An' she's blind!" Rose-Marie started back from the child with a sickening sense of shock. All at once she realized the reason why Bennie's eyes grew tender at the mention of his little sister why Ella forgot anger and suspicion when Lily came into the room. She understood why Mrs. Volsky's dull voice held love and sorrow.
But she did not say anything of the sort to Mrs. Volsky Mrs. Volsky would not have been able to understand. Instead she spoke of something else that had lain, for a long time, upon her mind. "Has Lily ever received any medical attention?" she asked abruptly. Mrs. Volsky's face took on lines of blankness. "What say?" she mouthed thickly. "I don' understan'?" Rose-Marie reconstructed her question.
She had felt, many times before, a slowing up in conversations she had seen the bitterness drain from Ella's face, the stolidness from Bennie's. She had even seen Pa, half intoxicated, turn and go quietly from a room that Lily was entering. And now, as she watched, she saw a spark leap into the dullness of Mrs. Volsky's eyes. With a gentle hand she reached out to the child, drew her close.
Volsky's face, she wanted to see a light dawn in Ella's great eyes, she wanted to whisper a message of of life, almost into Lily's tiny useless ear. And, most of all, she wanted to feel Bennie's warm, grubby little fingers touching her hand! Jim she hoped that Jim would be out when she arrived. She did not want to have Jim throw cold water upon her plans which did not include him.
I'll make new aprons for you, and I'll" her brave resolution faltered, but only for a moment "I'll wash your hair, and take you to the free baths with me. And then," she had a sudden inspiration, "then Lily will love to touch you, you'll be so nice and clean! Then Lily will be glad that she has you for a mother!" All at once the shell of stupidity had slipped from Mrs. Volsky's bent shoulders.
Volsky's usually colourless voice was breaking into loud, almost weird lamentation. Ella stood speechless. But Rose-Marie, the horror of it all striking to her very soul, spoke. "It can't be true," she cried, starting forward and in the excitement of the moment laying her hand upon Jim's perfectly tailored coat sleeve. "It can't be true.... It's too terrible!"
"No," she told him, and her voice was hysterically high, "no, you're not good enough! You're not good enough for any decent girl! You're bad too bad to lay your fingers upon me. You're you're unclean! Let go of me or I'll" her courage was oozing rapidly away, "or I'll scream!" Jim Volsky's too red lips were on a level with her own. His voice came thickly.
All at once the empty bottle dropped from the unclenched hand, the mouth fell open in a prodigious yawn, the eyes became wide, burned-out wells of drunkenness. And as she watched, Rose-Marie saw the room cleared in an amazing fashion. She heard Mrs. Volsky's terrified whisper, "He's wakin' up!"
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