She was silent, and both sat in the cold room without word or motion.

CHAPTER V

POSSIBILITIES

Christmas passed, and the beginning of the New Year drew nigh.  And, one morning, as Mr. Woodstock was glancing up and down the pages of a ledger, a telegram was delivered to him.  It was from a hospital in the north-west of London.  “Your daughter is dying, and wishes to see you.  Please come at once.”

Lotty’s ailment had declared itself as pneumonia.  She was frequently delirious, and the substance of her talk at such times led the attendant Sister to ask her, when reason returned, whether she did not wish any relative to be sent for.  Lotty was frightened, but, as long as she was told that there was still hope of recovery, declined to mention any name.  The stubborn independence which had supported her through these long years asserted itself again, as a reaction after her fruitless appeal; at moments she felt that she could die with her lips closed, and let what might happen to her child.  But when she at length read upon the faces of those about her that her fate hung in the balance, and when she saw the face of little Ida, come there she knew not how, looking upon her from the bedside, then her purpose yielded, and in a whisper she told her father’s address, and begged that he might be apprised of her state.

Abraham Woodstock arrived at the hospital, but to no purpose.  Lotty had lost her consciousness.  He waited for some hours; there was no return of sensibility.  When it had been long dark, and he had withdrawn from the ward for a little, he was all at once hastily summoned back.  He stood by the bedside, his hands behind his back, his face set in a hard gaze upon the pale features on the pillow.  Opposite to him stood the medical man, and a screen placed around the bed shut them off from the rest of the ward.  All at once Lotty’s eyes opened.  It seemed as though she recognised her father, for a look of surprise came to her countenance.  Then there was a gasping for breath, a struggle, and the eyes saw no more, for all their staring.

Mr. Woodstock left the hospital.  At the first public-house he reached he entered and drank a glass of whisky.  The barman had forgotten the piece of lemon, and was rewarded with an oath considerably stronger than the occasion seemed to warrant.  Arrived at certain cross-ways, Mr. Woodstock paused.  His eyes were turned downwards; he did not seem dubious of his way, so much as in hesitation as to a choice of directions.  He took a few steps hither, then back; began to wend thither, and again turned.  When he at length decided, his road brought him to Milton Street, and up to the door on which stood the name of Mrs. Ledward.

He knocked loudly, and the landlady herself opened.

“A Mrs. Starr lived here, I believe?” he asked.

“She does live here, sir, but she’s in the orspital at present, I’m sorry to say.”