Page:The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.djvu/192

188 young devil 'ave fed at my 'ome, an' now she turns, cuss her."

"Well,—well," said Calton, rather impatiently, "what is it you wanted to see me about?"

"Don't be in such a 'urry," said the hag, with a scowl, "or I'm blamed if I tell you anything, s'elp me G—."

She was evidently growing very weak, so Calton turned to Kilsip and told him in a whisper to get a doctor. The detective scribbled a note on some paper, and, giving it to Lizer, ordered her to take it. The other girl arose, and, putting her arm in that of the child's, they left together.

"Them two young 'usseys gone?" said Mother Guttersnipe. "Right you are, for I don't want what I've got to tell to get into the noospaper, I don't."

"And what is it?" asked Calton, bending forward.

The old woman took another drink of gin, and it seemed to put life into her, for she sat up in the bed, and commenced to talk rapidly, as though she were afraid of dying before her secret was told.

"You've been 'ere afore," she said, pointing one skinny finger at Calton, "and you wanted to find out all about 'er; but you didn't, blarst ye. She wouldn't let me tell, for she was always a proud jade, a-flouncin' round while 'er pore mother was a starvin'."

"Her mother! Are you Rosanna Moore's mother?" cried Calton, considerably astonished.

"May I die if I ain't," croaked the hag. "'Er pore father died of drink, 'cuss 'im, an' I'm a-follerin 'im to the same place in the same way. You weren't about town in the old days, or you'd 'a bin after her, blarst ye."

"After Rosanna?"

"The werry girl," answered Mother Guttersnipe. "She were on the stage, she were, an' my eye what a swell she were, with all the coves a-dying for 'er, and she dancin' over their black 'earts, 'cuss 'em; but she was allays good to me till 'e came."

"Who came?"

"'E!" yelled the old woman, rasing herself on her arm, her eyes sparkling with vindictive fury. "'E, a-comin' around with di'monds and gold, and a-ruinin' my pore girl, an' how 'e's 'eld 'is bloomin' 'ead up all these years, as if he were a saint, 'cuss 'im—'cuss 'im.,'" [sic]