The other patients wondered
what it was, and whence it came, and appealed to me for information,
but, as I knew nothing about it myself, their curiosity was not
gratified in the least. On my questioning the lady she told me a
story similar to that which she told the nurse, but her countenance
contradicted her assertions, and the idea of any child carrying a
doll of the dimensions of the rag baby was too absurd for credence.
No more was said about it, however, and the matter passed almost
completely from our memory.
For three or four days things went on as usual, Mrs. Roberts
getting to all appearances better every day, and her husband's
visits being paid with due regularity; one day, however, he failed
to appear, and Mrs. Roberts seemed very uneasy. After tea she asked
for the evening paper, and hastily scanned its columns, when her eye
fell on some item of interest, and she became deadly pale. The
American war being then in progress I thought she might have learned
of the death of a friend or relation, so I inquired if anything were
amiss, and was astonished when she pointed out a paragraph
containing an account of her husband's arrest for enlisting British
subjects for the American army, and smuggling them across the line,
She now took me into her confidence, and explained that she was an
accomplice of her husband, and that they had made a practice of
enlisting men in Montreal.
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