u to be well--always--all the time! You see, Ma,
Janet's poor mother----"

"Ah, and is it that that's troublin' you?" Mrs. O'Brien crooned,
rocking Rosie from side to side as though she were Geraldine. "Don't you
be worryin' your little head about your poor ma. I'm fine and well,
thank God, and your poor da is well, and Terry's well, and Jackie's
well, and poor wee Geraldine is well, and dear Ellen's well, and we're
all----"

"Ellen!" snorted Rosie, her tears abruptly ceasing to flow and her body
drawing itself away from her mother's embrace.

"Dear Ellen's well, too," Mrs. O'Brien in all innocence repeated.

"Oh, I know she's well all right!" Rosie declared in tones which even
her mother recognised as sarcastic.

"Why, Rosie," Mrs. O'Brien began, "I'm surprised----"

But Rosie, without waiting to hear the end of her mother's reproach,
marched resolutely off with all the dignity of a high chin and a stiff
military gait.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE CASE OF DAVE McFADDEN

Promptly at eight o'clock Rosie reached the tenement where the McFaddens
lived. Janet was on the front steps waiting for her.

"Shall we sit out here awhile?" Janet said, making place for Rosie
beside herself.

Rosie hesitated a moment. "Is your father home?"

"Yes. He came in an hour ago. I got him off to bed as soon as I could.
He's asleep now."

"Are--are you sure he won't wake up and make trouble?"

Janet laughed. "Yes, I'm sure. We won't hear anything from him till
morning except snorts and groans. I guess I know."

On the steps of the neighbouring tenements there were groups of people
laughing, talking, wrangling. The electric street lamps cast great
patches of quivering jumping light and heavy masses of deep pulsating
shadow. Janet and Rosie, seated alone, were near enough their neighbours
not to feel cut off from the outside world and yet, in the seclusion of
a dark shadow, far enough away to talk freely on the subject uppermost
in their thoughts.

"You've never heard me say anything about my father before, Rosie, you
know you haven't." Janet paused to sigh. "Mother never has, either.
We've both always let on that he's all right and we've covered him up
and lied about him and done everything we could to keep people from
knowing how he really treats us. If this hadn't happened to mother, I
wouldn't be talking yet. Say, Rosie, ain't women fools? That's the way
they always act about their own men folks. They're willing to shoot a