And suddenly I heard a cry and rush behind me.
It was a false alarm;just a long-legged girl of twelve rushing round the corner,followed by a lot of others.It hadn't been meant for me,of course,but in the second when I had remembered that precious paper and Tausig's rage when he should miss it,Ihad pulled my hand away from that bit baby's and started to run.
The poor little tot!There isn't any reason in the world for the fancies they take any more than for our own;eh,Mag?Why should she have been attracted to me just because I was so undignified as to dance with the piccaninnies?
But do you know what that little thing did?She thought I was playing with her.She gave a crow of delight and came bowling after me.
That finished me.I stooped and picked her up in my arms,throwing her up in the air to hear her crow and feel her come down again.
"Mouse,"I said,"we'll just have a little trip together.The nurse that'd lose you deserves to worry till you're found.The mother that's lucky enough to own you will be benefited hereafter by a sharp scare on your account just now.Come on,sweetheart!"Oh,the feel of a baby in your arms,Mag!It makes the Cruelty seem a perfectly unreal thing,a thing one should be unutterably ashamed of imagining,of accusing human nature of;a thing only an irredeemably vile thing could imagine.Just the weight of that little body riding like a bonny boat at anchor on your arm,just the cocky little way it sits up,chirping and confident;just the light touch of a bit of a hand on your collar;just that is enough to push down brick walls;to destroy pictures of bruised and maimed children that endure after the injuries are healed;to scatter records that even I--I,Nancy Olden--can't believe and believe,too,that other women have carried their babies,as Idid some other woman's baby,across the Square.
On the other side I set her down.I didn't want to.I was greedy of every moment that I had her.But I wanted to get some change ready before climbing up the steps to the L-station.
She clutched my dress as we stood there a minute in a perfectly irresistible way.I know now why men marry baby-women:it's to feel that delicious,helpless clutch of weak fingers;the clutch of dependence,of trust,of appeal.
I looked down at her with that same silly adoration I've seen on Molly's face for her poor,lacking,twisted boy.At least,I did in the beginning.But gradually the expression of my face must have changed;for all at once I discovered what had been done to me.
My purse was gone.
Yes,Maggie Monahan,clean gone!My pocket had been as neatly picked as I myself--well,never mind,as what.I threw back my head and laughed aloud.Nance Olden,the great doer-up,had been done up so cleverly,so surely,so prettily,that she hadn't had an inkling of it.
I wished I could get a glimpse of the clever girl that did it.Agirl--of course,it was!Do you think any boy's fingers could do a job like that and me not even know?
But I didn't stop to wish very long.Here was I with the thing Ivalued most in the world still clutched in my hand,and not a nickel to my name to get me,the paper,and the baby on our way.
It was the baby,of course,that decided me.You can't be very enterprising when you're carrying a pink lump of sweetness that's all a-smile at the moment,but may get all a-tear the next.
"It's you for the nearest police station,you young tough!"I said,squeezing her."I can't take you home now and show you to Mag."But she giggled and gurgled back at me,the abandoned thing,as though the police station was just the properest place for a young lady of her years.
It was not so very near,either,that station.My arm ached when I got there from carrying her,but my heart ached,too,to leave her.I told the matron how and where the little thing had picked me up.At first she wouldn't leave me,but--the fickle little thing--a glass of milk transferred all her smiles and wiles to the matron.Then we both went over her clothes to find a name or an initial or a laundry mark.But we found nothing.The matron offered me a glass of milk,too,but I was in a hurry to be gone.
She was a nice matron;so nice that I was just about to ask her for the loan of car-fare when--When I heard a voice,Maggie,in the office adjoining.I knew that voice all right,and I knew that I had to make a decision quick.
I did.I threw the whole thing into the lap of Fate.And when Iopened the door and faced him I was smiling.
Oh,yes,it was Tausig.