It turns out I was wrong. My friend's door was closed in
my face some hours since; my friend's servants threatened me with the
police. I had nowhere else to go, after trying my luck in your
neighborhood; and nothing left but my two-shilling piece and these rags on
my back. What respectable innkeeper would take _me_ into his house? I
walked about, wondering how I could find my way out of the world without
disfiguring myself, and without suffering much pain. You have no river in
these parts. I didn't see my way out of the world, till I heard you
ringing at the doctor's house. I got a glimpse at the bottles in the
surgery, when he let you in, and I thought of the laudanum directly. What
were you doing there? Who is that medicine for? Your wife?"
"I am not married!"
She laughed again. "Not married! If I was a little better dressed there
might be a chance for ME. Where do you live? Here?"
We had arrived, by this time, at my mother's door. She held out her hand
to say good-by. Houseless and homeless as she was, she never asked me to
give her a shelter for the night. It was my proposal that she should rest,
under my roof, unknown to my mother and my aunt. Our kitchen was built out
at the back of the cottage: she might remain there unseen and unheard
until the household was astir in the morning. I led her into the kitchen,
and set a chair for her by the dying embers of the fire.
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