Goldmarker in No. 17. She can make anybody sing, they say. I'm
taking of her right along, and my voice has about doubled in size. I
ought to be leading the Kipling Brothers now, but my patients stayed
so late to-day I didn't get a good start. Good afternoon.'

The weeks wore on, and the children were old friends when Mary
finally made Mrs. Grubb's acquaintance; but in the somewhat hurried
interviews she had with that lady at first, she never seemed able to
establish the kind of relation she desired. The very atmosphere of
her house was chaotic, and its equally chaotic mistress showed no
sign of seeking advice on any point.

'Marm Lisa could hardly be received in the schools,' Mary told the
listening neophytes one afternoon when they were all together.
'There ought of course to be a special place for her and such as she,
somewhere, and people are beginning to see and feel the importance of
it here; but until the thought and hope become a reality the State
will simply put the child in with the idiots and lunatics, to grow
more and more wretched, more hopeless, more stupid, until the poor
little light is quenched in utter darkness. There is hope for her
now, I am sure of it. If Mrs. Grubb's neighbours have told me the
truth, any physical malady that may be pursuing her is in its very
first stages; for, so far as they know in Eden Place, where one
doesn't look for exact knowledge, to be sure, she has had but two or
three attacks ("dizziness" or "faintness" they called them) in as
many years. She was very strange and intractable just before the
last one, and much clearer in her mind afterwards. They think her
worse of late, and have advised Mrs. Grubb to send her to an insane
asylum if she doesn't improve. She would probably have gone there
long ago if she had not been such a valuable watch-dog for the twins;