Not a toy or a bit of colour
or a picture, but clothes fine enough for Buckingham Palace
children--and enough for six. Fed and washed and taken out every
day to be shown off. And a bad nurse, Miss--a bad one that kept
her quiet by pinching her black and blue."
"Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! That little angel!" cried Mademoiselle,
covering her eyes.
Dowson hastily wiped her own eyes. She had shed many a motherly
tear over the child. It was a relief to her to open her heart to
a sympathizer.
"Black and blue!" she repeated. "And laughing and dancing and all
sorts of fast fun going on in the drawing-rooms." She put out her
hand and touched Mademoiselle's arm quite fiercely. "The little
thing didn't know she HAD a mother! She didn't know what the word
meant. I found that out by her innocent talk. She used to call
HER 'The Lady Downstairs'."
"Mon Dieu!" cried the Frenchwoman again. "What a woman!"
"She first heard of mothers from a little boy she met in the Square
Gardens. He was the first child she had been allowed to play with.
He was a nice child and he had a good mother. I only got it bit
by bit when she didn't know how much she was telling me. He told
her about mothers and he kissed her--for the first time in her
life. She didn't understand but it warmed her little heart. She's
never forgotten."
Mademoiselle even started slightly in her chair.
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