This for apology poor Letty, never having had from him fuller
acknowledgment of wrong, was fain to accept. She turned on the
sofa, threw her arms about his neck, kissed him, and clung to him
with an utter forgiveness. But all it did for Tom was to restore
him his good opinion of himself, and enable him to go on feeling
as much of a gentleman as before.
Reconciled, they turned to the baby. He was pale, his eyes were
closed, and they could not tell whether he breathed. In a
horrible fright, Tom ran for the doctor. Before he returned with
him, the child had come to, and the doctor could discover no
injury from the fall they told him he had had. At the same time,
he said he was not properly nourished, and must have better food.
This was a fresh difficulty to Letty; it was a call for more
outlay. And now their landlady, who had throughout been very
kind, was in trouble about her own rent, and began to press for
part at least of theirs. Letty's heart seemed to labor under a
stone. She forgot that there was a thing called joy. So sad she
looked that the good woman, full of pity, assured her that, come
what might, she should not be turned out, but at the worst would
only have to go a story higher, to inferior rooms. The rent
should wait, she said, until better days. But this kindness
relieved Letty only a little, for the rent past and the rent to
come hung upon her like a cloak of lead.
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