Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/354

334 himself had been present in the room, I do not believe that she would have had the Portuguese arrested, no,  not even if she had already had a warrant properly  made out against him. It is true that Brenda herself was not the person on whom the duty of prosecuting  Miguel would have fallen, and the detective business  which she had undertaken was decidedly amateur. Even as it was, she felt like leaving the house without mentioning the wickedness of Miguel, especially when the  poor mother hurst into a tearful cry, “Oh, the poor little  creature, the poor little creature, and I ’ll never see his  likes again! ”

At this moment a heavy step was heard in the hall. Julia and Brenda looked at each other. Could it be that Miguel had unexpectedly returned? Evidently he was not in the little tenement when they came in.

But any questions they may have asked themselves came to a sudden end.

“Good afternoon, Nellie,” cried a brisk, cheerful voice with a strong brogue; “but sure, you ’re not crying this  fine day!”

There was something familiar in the tone; and when Mrs. Silva’s visitor threw back a heavy brown veil, Brenda was astonished to see the face of Mrs. Moriarty,—the stout Mrs. Moriarty who had been so kind to her  that hot day at Nahant.

Mrs. Moriarty, in her turn, seemed more than astonished to see so many “reel leddies,” as she put it, in Mrs. Silva’s room.