But when this room
was papered and painted, and furnished with a pretty carpet of drab and
blue, and a single iron bedstead with lace hangings, and a child's
bureau and rocking-chair, and more than all when a large doll was
bought, with a complete wardrobe for it, Flora could no longer restrain
her curiosity, but asked if her mistress were expecting a child.
"Yes," was the reply, "my grandniece, Betsey, who was named for me. She
lives at Stoneleigh, my old home in Wales, and I may get a letter any
day saying she has sailed. I shall go to New York to meet her so have my
things ready for me to start at a moment's notice."
So confident was Miss McPherson that her nephew would be glad to have
his daughter removed from the influences around her to a home where she
was sure of enough to eat, and that his frivolous wife would be glad to
be rid of a child who must be in the way of her flirtations, that she
was constantly expecting to hear that she was coming. She did not
believe Archie would bring her himself, but she thought he would
probably consign her to the care of some reliable person, or put her in
charge of the captain or stewardess, and in her anxiety to have the
little girl she had written a second letter three days after she sent
the first.
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