Page:Sheila and Others (1920).djvu/184

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
172
SHEILA AND OTHERS

and said with evident pride, "An' 'ow do you like me noo 'at, Ma'am?"

"It's quite a hat, Lizzie," I responded evasively, "I'm glad you were able to get yourself one."

"Yaas, 'M. I got it at the 15-cent store, 'M. Do yuh think its becomin'? Me lan'-lady, she thinks its awful nice."

I certainly was taken aback. Fifteen cents! I perceived that there are resources reserved for downtown economists, quite outside the realms of my personal experience.

Lizzie didn't last long. She departed as blithely as she came. I tried to keep in touch with her for a time, but life presents too huge a surface in its modern aspect for one to follow far the flotsam of its currents. So the little creature drifted from sight and was lost again.

But about two years after I had forgotten her second name, she sprung her greatest surprise and triumph on Catherine and me. She came to see us one fine afternoon with as bonnie and blue-eyed a girl baby on her arm as you would see in a day's march. At first we couldn't take it for real, but Lizzie chirruped to it with the unmistakable hall-marks