第73章
"I took the child home to mother, not knowing what else to do, but she wouldn't have it at any price, even for a night.She doesn't like children, you know, and Father has joked so much about 'the Pointers' that she is quite rampant at the mere idea of a child in the house.She told me to take it to the Rose Garden.I said it was running over now, and no room even for a mite like this.'Go to the Hospital,' says she.'Baby isn't ill, ma'am,' says I.'Orphan Asylum,' says she.'Not an orphangot a father who can't take care of her,' says I.'Take her to the Foundling place, or Mrs.Gardener, or someone whose business it is.I will not have the creature here, sick and dirty and noisy.Carry it back, and ask Rose to tell you what to do with it.' So my cruel parent cast me forth but relented as I shouldered baby, gave me a shawl to put her in, a jumble to feed her with, and money to pay her board in some good place.Mother's bark is always worse than her bite, you know.""And you were trying to think of the 'good place' as you sat here?"asked Rose, looking down at him with great approval as he stood patting Rosa's glossy neck.
"Exactly.I didn't want to trouble you, for you have your house full already, and I really couldn't lay my hand on any good soul who would be bothered with this little forlornity.She has nothing to recommend her, you seenot pretty; feeble; shy as a mouse; no end of care, I daresayyet she needs every bit she can get to keep soul and body together, if I'm any judge."Rose opened her lips impulsively, but closed them without speaking and sat a minute looking straight between Rosa's ears, as if forcing herself to think twice before she spoke.Mac watched her out of the corner of his eyes as he said, in a musing tone, tucking the shawl around a pair of shabby little feet the while, "This seems to be one of the charities that no one wants to undertake, yet I can't help feeling that my promise to the mother binds me to something more than merely handing baby over to some busy matron or careless nurse in any of our overcrowded institutions.She is such a frail creature she won't trouble anyone long, perhaps, and I should like to give her just a taste of comfort, if not love, before she finds her 'Marmar' again.""Lead RosaI'm going to take this child home, and if Uncle is willing, I'll adopt her, and she shall be happy!" cried Rose, with the sudden glow of feeling that always made her lovely.And gathering poor baby close, she went on her way like a modern Britomart, ready to redress the wrongs of any who had need of her.
As he led the slowly stepping horse along the quiet road, Mac could not help thinking that they looked a little like the Flight into Egypt, but he did not say so, being a reverent youthonly glanced back now and then at the figure above him, for Rose had taken off her hat to keep the light from baby's eyes and sat with the sunshine turning her uncovered hair to gold as she looked down at the little creature resting on the saddle before her with the sweet thoughtfulness one sees in some of Correggio's young Madonnas.
No one else saw the picture, but Mac long remembered it, and ever after there was a touch of reverence added to the warm affection he had always borne his cousin Rose.
"What is the child's name?" was the sudden question which disturbed a brief silence, broken only by the sound of pacing hoofs, the rustle of green boughs overhead, and the blithe caroling of birds.
"I'm sure I don't know," answered Mac, suddenly aware that he had fallen out of one quandary into another.
"Didn't you ask?"
"No, the mother called her 'Baby,' and the old woman, 'Brat.' And that is all I know of the first namethe last is Kennedy.You may christen her what you like.""Then I shall name her Dulcinea, as you are her knight, and call her Dulce for short.That is a sweet diminutive, I'm sure," laughed Rose, much amused at the idea.