"Who are you?"
Of course they all thought Mrs. Forrester was having a spell! Renée was terribly frightened--the more so because now one of the thin hands was gripping her arm so that it hurt.
Elsbeth, more wild and disheveled than ever, pushed at Renée and leaned over the bed, a tumbler in one hand, some powders in the other.
"Mis' Forrester! Please, Mis' Forrester!" she pleaded, tears running down her wrinkled cheeks.
But Mrs. Forrester struck angrily at the hand holding the powders and sent them in a tiny cloud of dust all over the covers.
"Go away, you old fool!" she cried, "can't you see I've found my baby? No one else anywhere in the world had a locket like that!"
Mrs. Lee suddenly remembered who it was that Renée had looked like! It was the faded picture Elsbeth had once shown her of the young daughter of Mrs. Forrester! She stepped forward now and answered for Renée.
"She is Renée LaDue, but I think--I believe--she must be your grandchild!"
Mrs. Forrester was sitting bolt upright and the pillows had fallen all about her. Two bright spots of red burned on her cheeks and her eyes, as they stared through and through Renée, were alight with life. She was a different creature from the one who had lain limply on the ugly bed, her face turned toward the wall! Only her voice still sounded weak and shrill.
"Your mother--answer, child!"