FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   >>  
home safe, and the other," I gulped, "to ask about a paper with some notes that I'd pinned to her skirt." She shook her head. It was in that very minute that I noticed the baby's ribbons were pink; they had been blue in the morning. "Of course," I suggested, "you've had her clothes changed and--" "Why, yes, of course," said baby's mother. "The first thing I did when I got hold of her was to strip her and put her in a tub; the second, was to discharge that gossiping nurse for letting her out of her sight." "And the soiled things she had on--the dress with the blue ribbons?" "I'll find out," she said. She rang for the maid and gave her an order. "Was it a valuable paper?" she asked. "Not--very," I stammered. My tongue was thick with hope and dread. "Just--my notes, you know, but I do need them. I couldn't carry the baby easily, so I pinned them on her skirt, thinking--thinking--" The maid came in and dumped a little heap of white before me. I fell on my knees. Oh, yes, I prayed all right, but I searched, too. And there it was. What I said to that woman I don't know even now. I flew out through the hall and down the steps and-- And there Kitty Wilson corralled me. "Say, where's that stick-pin?" she cried. "Here!--here, you darling!" I said, pressing it into her hand. "And, Kitty, whenever you feel like swiping another purse--just don't do it. It doesn't pay. Just you come down to the Vaudeville and ask for Nance Olden some day, and I'll tell you why." "Gee!" said Kitty, impressed. "Shall--shall I call ye a hansom, lady?" Should she! The blessed inspiration of her! I got into the wagon and we drove down street--to the Vaudeville. I burst in past the stage doorkeeper, amazed to see me, and rushed into Fred Obermuller's office. "There!" I cried, throwing that awful paper on the desk before him. "Now cinch 'em, Fred Obermuller, as they cinched you. It'll be the holiest blackmail that ever--oh, and will you pay for the hansom?" XVI. I don't remember much about the first part of the lunch. I was so hungry I wanted to eat everything in sight, and so happy that I couldn't eat a thing. But Mr. O. kept piling the things on my plate, and each time I began to talk he'd say: "Not now--wait till you're rested, and not quite so famished." I laughed. "Do I eat as though I was starved?" "You--you look tired, Nance." "Well," I said slowly, "it's been a hard week."
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   >>  



Top keywords:
things
 

thinking

 

couldn

 

Obermuller

 

pinned

 
Vaudeville
 
ribbons
 

hansom

 
street
 

Should


inspiration

 

impressed

 
amazed
 

doorkeeper

 
blessed
 

office

 
rushed
 
throwing
 

rested

 

famished


laughed

 

slowly

 

starved

 

remember

 

cinched

 

holiest

 

blackmail

 

piling

 

hungry

 

wanted


letting

 
soiled
 

gossiping

 

discharge

 

stammered

 
tongue
 

valuable

 
minute
 

noticed

 
gulped

morning
 

mother

 
changed
 
clothes
 

suggested

 

corralled

 
Wilson
 

darling

 
swiping
 

pressing