Jeff, I must go down there this minute."
"It's after ten--you can't. Wait till morning."
"Oh, no!" The girl was making ready as she spoke. "You'll go with me.
Think of the baby. There'll be a houseful of women, all wailing, if
anything goes wrong with Annie. They did it before, when they thought
she wasn't doing well. The baby was so frightened. She knows me. Of
course I must go. Think what mother would do for Annie--after all the
years Annie was such a faithful maid."
That brought Jeff round at once. In ten minutes he and Charlotte had
quietly left the house. A rapid walk through the crisp January night
brought them to the poorer quarter of the town and the Donohue cottage.
A woman with a shawl over her head met them just outside.
"Annie's gone," she said, at sight of Charlotte. "Took a turn for the
worse an hour ago. I never thought she'd get well, she's had too hard a
life with that brute of a man of hers."
Charlotte stood still on the door-step when the woman had gone on. She
was thinking hard. Jeff remained quiet beside her. Charlotte had known
more of Annie than he; Annie had been Charlotte's nurse.
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