"Diphtheria again?"
"Yes; and she, poor thing, was in no state to give it the resolute care
that is the only chance. Doctors could be easily found, but I was at my
wit's end for a nurse, till I remembered that Mr. Mitchell had told
me of a Sisterhood that have a Home at St. Norbert's, with a nursing
establishment attached to it. So, in despair, I went there, and begged
to see the Superior, and a most kind and sensible lady I found her,
ready to do anything helpful. She lent me a nice little Sister, rather
young, I thought; but who turned out thoroughly efficient, nearly as
good as a doctor. Still, whether the child lives is very doubtful,
though the mother was full of hope when I went in last. She insisted
that I had saved it, when both she and it had been deserted by Maddox,
for whom she had given up everything."
"Then she owned that he was Maddox?"
"She called him so, without my even putting the question to her. She had
played his game long enough; and now his desertion has evidently put an
end to all her regard for him. It was confusedly and shortly told; the
child was in a state that prevented attention being given to anything
else; but she knows that she had been made a tool of to ruin her master
and you, and the sight of you, Ailie, had evidently stirred up much old
affection, and remembrance of better days."
"Is she his wife?"
"No, or the evidence she promises could not be used against him. Do you
know this, Ermine?" as he gave her a cover, with a seal upon it.
"The Saracen! the Saracen's head, Colin; it was made with the lost
seal-ring!"
"The ring was taken from Edward's dressing-room the night when Rose was
frightened with the phosphorus. Maria declares that she did not suspect
the theft, or Maddox's purpose, till long after she had left her place.
He effected his practices under pretence of attachment to her, and then
could not shake her off. She went abroad with him after the settlement
of affairs; but he could not keep out of gambling speculation, and lost
everything. Then he seems to have larked about, obtaining means she knew
not how--as artist, lecturer, and what not--till the notable F. U. E. E.
was started. Most likely he would have collected the subscriptions and
made off with them, if Rachel Curtis had not had just sense enough to
trust him with nothing without seeing some result, so that he was forced
to set the affair going with Maria at its head, as the only person
who could co-operate with him. They kept themselves ready for a start
whenever there should be symptoms of a discovery, but, in the meantime,
he gambled away all that he got into his hands, and never gave her
enough to feed the children. Thus she was absolutely driven to force
work from them for subsistence; and she is a passionate creature, whom
jealousy embittered more and more, so that she became more savage than
she knew. Poor thing! She has her punishment. Maddox only came home,
yesterday, too late for any train before the mail, and by that time the
child was too ill to be moved. He must have thought it all up with him,
and wished to be rid of both, for they quarrelled, and he left her to
her misery."