"
"Did she," inquired Mrs. Tracy, bringing her chair close to Grandma
Padgett and resting appealing eyes on the blue glasses, "have hair
that curled? Rather long hair for a child of her years."
"Yes'm," replied Grandma Padgett with dignified tenderness. "Long
for a child about five or six, as I took her to be. But she was
babyish for all that."
"Yes--oh, yes!" said Mrs. Tracy.
"And curly. How long since you lost her?"
The lady from Baltimore sobbed on her handkerchief, but recovered
with a resolute effort, and replied:
"It was nearly three months ago. She was on the street with her
nurse, and was taken away almost miraculously. We could not find a
trace. Her papa is dead, but I have always kept his memory alive to
her. My friends have helped me search, but it has seemed day after
day as if I could not bear the strain any longer."
Grandma Padgett took off her glasses and polished them.
"I know how you feel," she observed, glancing at Robert Day and
Corinne. "I had a scare at Richmond, in this State."
"Are these your children?"
"My youngest and my grandson. It was their notion of running away
with the little girl, and their gettin' lost, that put me to such a
worry:"
Mrs.
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