"No, no!" exclaimed Hester. "Go by the way of Mrs. Doyle's house. The baby ought to be 'tended to first."
"Why, that's so," admitted the physician, and he looked at her a little curiously.
Hester whisked into the cab and hid herself from the curious gaze of the few passers-by who had gathered when the trouble was all over. The taxi bore them all swiftly to the Doyles' humble domicile. It was on a street in which electric cabs were not commonly driven, and Rufe was mighty proud when he descended first into a throng of the idle children and women of the neighborhood.
Of course, the usual officious neighbor, after one glance at Johnny's wet figure, had to rush into the house and proclaim that the boy had been drowned in the lake. But the doctor was right on her heels and showed Mrs. Doyle in a few moments that Johnny was all right.
With a hot drink, and warm blankets for a few hours, and a good sleep, the child would be as good as new. But when the doctor came out of the house he was surprised to find the cab still in waiting and Hester inside.
"Why didn't you go home at once and change your clothing?" demanded Dr. Agnew, sharply, as he hopped into the taxi again.
"Then I'll go home," sighed Hester. "Oh, I sha'n't get cold, Doctor. I'm no namby-pamby girl--I hope! And I was afraid the little beggar would be in a bad way. He must have swallowed a quantity of water."
"He was frightened more than anything else," declared Dr. Agnew, aloud. But to himself he was thinking: "There's good stuff in that girl, after all."
For he, too, had heard the whispers that had begun to go the rounds of the Hill, and knew that Hester Grimes was on trial in the minds of nearly everybody whom she would meet. Some had already judged and sentenced her, as well!
If Hester had arrived at the Grimes's house in two cabs instead of one it would have aroused her mother to little comment; for, for some years now, her daughter had grown quite beyond her control and Mrs. Grimes had learned not to comment upon Hester's actions. Yet, oddly enough, Hester was neither a wild girl nor a silly girl; she was merely bold, bad tempered, and wilful.
Mrs. Grimes was a large, lymphatic lady, given to loose wrappers until late in the day, and the enjoyment of unlimited novels. "Comfort above all" was the good lady's motto. She had suffered much privation and had worked hard, during Mr. Grimes's beginnings in trade, for Hester's father had worked up from an apprentice butcher boy in a retail store--was a "self-made man."