Then a lot more went in.
First I thought it was some sort of fun. Not it!" And he told how, by
inquiries further down the river, he had learned the extent of the
disaster. "Hundreds and hundreds of them--ALL of them," he summed up.
"And all for the love of HER," he added, as with a sulky salute to
Romance.
Mrs. Batch had risen from her chair, the better to cope with such
magnitude. She stood with wide-spread arms, silent, gaping. She
seemed, by sheer force of sympathy, to be expanding to the dimensions
of a crowd.
Intensive Katie recked little of all these other deaths. "I only
know," she said, "that he hated her."
"Hundreds and hundreds--ALL," intoned Mrs. Batch, then gave a sudden
start, as having remembered something. Mr. Noaks! He, too! She
staggered to the door, leaving her actual offspring to their own
devices, and went heavily up the stairs, her mind scampering again
before her. . . . If he was safe and sound, dear young gentleman,
heaven be praised! and she would break the awful news to him, very
gradually. If not, there was another "family" to be solaced; "I'm a
mother myself, Mrs. Noaks" . . .
The sitting-room door was closed. Twice did Mrs.
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