and knock on the first door at the rear on that landing.
They did this, Walter insisting upon keeping near the girls. A red-faced,
bare-armed woman, blowsy and smelling strongly of soapsuds, came to the
door and jerked it open.
"Well?" she demanded, in a loud voice.
Bess was immediately tongue-tied; so Nan asked:
"Is Inez at home?"
"And who be you that wants Inez--the little bothersome tyke that she is?"
"We are two of her friends," Nan explained briefly. It was plain that
the woman was not in a good temper, and Nan was quite sure she had
been drinking.
"And plenty of fine friends she has," broke out the woman, complainingly.
"While I'm that poor and overrun with children, that I kin scarce get
bite nor sup for 'em. And she'll go and spend her money on cakes and
ice-cream because it's my Mamie's birthday, instead of bringing it all
home, as I told her she should! The little tyke! I'll l'arn her!"
"I am sorry if Inez has disobeyed you," said Nan, breaking in on what
seemed to promise to be an unending complaint. "Isn't she here--or can
you tell us where to find her?"
"I'll say 'no' to them two questions immediate!" exclaimed the woman,
crossly. "I beat her as she deserved, and took away the money she had
saved back to buy more flowers with; and I put her basket in the stove."
"Oh!" gasped Bess.
"And what is it to _you_, Miss?" demanded the woman, threateningly.
"It was cruel to beat her," declared Bess, bravely, but unwisely.
"Is that so? is that so?" cried the virago, advancing on Bess with the
evident purpose of using her broad, parboiled palm on the visitor, just
as she would use it on one of her own children. "I'll l'arn ye not to
come here with your impudence!"
But Walter stepped in her way, covering Bess' frightened retreat. Walter
was a good-sized boy.
"Hold on," he said, good-naturedly. "We won't quarrel about it. Just tell
us where the child is to be found."
"I ain't seen her for four days and nights, that I haven't," declared
the woman.
That was all there was to be got out of her. Nan and her friends went
away, much troubled. They went again to Mother Beasley's to inquire, with
like result. When they told that kind but careworn woman what the child's
aunt had said, she shook her head and spoke lugubriously.
"She was probably drunk when she treated the child so. If she destroyed
Inez basket and used the money Inez always saved back to buy a new supply
of bouquets, she fair
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