It was a cheap and dirty tenement house. A woman told them to
go up one flight and knock on the first door at the rear on that landing.
They did this, Walter insisting upon keeping near the girls. A red-faced,
bare-armed woman, blowsy and smelling strongly of soapsuds, came to the
door and jerked it open.
"Well?" she demanded, in a loud voice.
Bess was immediately tongue-tied; so Nan asked:
"Is Inez at home?"
"And who be you that wants Inez--the little bothersome tyke that she is?"
"We are two of her friends," Nan explained briefly. It was plain that
the woman was not in a good temper, and Nan was quite sure she had
been drinking.
"And plenty of fine friends she has," broke out the woman, complainingly.
"While I'm that poor and overrun with children, that I kin scarce get
bite nor sup for 'em. And she'll go and spend her money on cakes and
ice-cream because it's my Mamie's birthday, instead of bringing it all
home, as I told her she should! The little tyke! I'll l'arn her!"
"I am sorry if Inez has disobeyed you," said Nan, breaking in on what
seemed to promise to be an unending complaint. "Isn't she here--or can
you tell us where to find her?"
"I'll say 'no' to them two questions immediate!" exclaimed the woman,
crossly. "I beat her as she deserved, and took away the money she had
saved back to buy more flowers with; and I put her basket in the stove.
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