We must have left it--"And I turned to go back into the room where I'd undressed.
"You didn't have any."
The words came clear and cold and positive.Her tone was like an icicle down my back.
"I didn't have any!"I exclaimed."Why,I certainly--""You certainly had no purse,for I should have seen it and searched it if you had."Now,what do you think of a woman like that?
"Nancy Olden,"I said to myself,more in sorrow than in anger,"you've met your match right here.When a woman knows a fact and states it with such quiet conviction,without the least unnecessary emphasis and not a superfluous word,'ware that woman.There's only one game to play to let you hang round here a bit longer and find out what's become of the baby.Play it!"I looked at her with respect;it was both real and feigned.
"Of course,you must be right,"I said humbly."I know you wouldn't be likely to make a mistake,but,just to convince me,do you mind letting me go back to look?""Not at all,"she said placidly."If I go with you there's no reason why you should not look."Oh,Mag,it was hard lines looking.Why?--Why,because the place was so bare and so small.There were so few things to move and it took such a short time,in spite of all I could do and pretend to do,that I was in despair.
"You must be right,"I said at length,looking woefully up at her.
"Yes;I knew I was,"she said steadily.
"I must have lost it."
"Yes."
There was no hope there.I turned to go.
"I'll lend you a nickel to get home,if you'll leave me your address,"she said after a moment.
Oh,that admirable woman!She ought to be ruling empires instead of searching thieves.Look at the balance of her,Mag.My best acting hadn't shaken her.She hadn't that fatal curiosity to understand motives that wrecks so many who deal with--we'll call them the temporarily un-straight.She was satisfied just not to let me get ahead of her in the least particular.But she wasn't mean,and she would lend me a nickel--not an emotionally extravagant ten-cent piece,but just a nickel--on the chance that I was what I seemed to be.
Oh,I did admire her;but I'd have been more enthusiastic about it if I could have seen my way clear to the baby and the paper.
I took the nickel and thanked her,but effusiveness left her unmoved.A wholesome,blue-gowned rock with a neat,full-bibbed white apron;that's what she was!
And still I lingered.Fancy Nance Olden just heartbroken at being compelled to leave a police station!
But there was nothing for it.Go,I had to.My head was a-whirl with schemes coming forward with suggestions and being dismissed as unsuitable;my thoughts were flying about at such a dizzy rate while I stood there in the doorway,the woman's patient hand on the knob and her watchful eyes on me,that I actually--Mag,I actually didn't hear the matron's voice the first time she spoke.
The second time,though,I turned--so happy I could not keep the tremor out of my voice.
"I thought you had gone long ago,"she said.
Oh,we were friends,we two!We'd chummed over a baby,which for women is like what taking a drink together is for men.The admirable dragon in the blue dress didn't waver a bit because her superior spoke pleasantly to me.She only watched and listened.
Which puts you in a difficult position when your name's Nance Olden--you have to tell the truth.
"I've been detained,"I said with dignity,"against my wish.
But that's all over.I'm going now.Good-by."I nodded and caught up my skirt."Oh!"I paused just as the admirable dragon was closing the door on me."Is the baby asleep?I wonder if Imight see her once more."
My heart was beating like an engine gone mad,in spite of my careless tone,and there was a buzzing in my ears that deafened me.But I managed to stand still and listen,and then to walk off,as though it didn't matter in the least to me,while her words came smashing the hope out of me.
"We've sent her with an officer back to the neighborhood where you found her.He'll find out where she belongs,no doubt.Good day."IV.
Ah me,Maggie,the miserable Nance that went away from that station!To have had your future in your grasp,like that one of the Fates with the string,and then to have it snatched from you by an impish breeze and blown away,goodness knows where!
I don't know just which way I turned after I left that station.
I didn't care where I went.Nothing I could think of gave me any comfort.I tried to fancy myself coming home to you.I tried to see myself going down to tell the whole thing to Obermuller.But I couldn't do that.There was only one thing I wanted to say to Fred Obermuller,and that thing I couldn't say now.
But Nance Olden's not the girl to go round long like a molting hen.There was only one chance in a hundred,and that was the one I took,of course.
"Back to the Square where you found the baby,Nance!"I cried to myself."There's the chance that that admirable dragon has had her suspicions aroused by your connection with the baby,which she hadn't known before,and has already dutifully notified the Sergeant.There's the chance that the baby is home by now,and the paper found by her mother will be turned over to her papa;and then it's good-by to your scheme.There's the chance that--"But in the heart of me I didn't believe in any chance but one--the chance that I'd find that blessed baby and get my fingers just once more on that precious paper.