Park. That
restless spring feeling which always attacks me somewhat prematurely
with the early May sunshine, had beguiled me into taking a holiday,
and with a book, which had been sent me for review, lying open upon
my knees, I was watching the occupants of the baby carriages which
were being wheeled up and down on the pavement in front of me.
Presently I discovered Storm's nurse seated on a bench near by in
eager converse with a male personage of her own nationality. The baby,
who was safely strapped in the carriage at the roadside, was
pleasantly occupied in venting her destructive instincts upon a linen
edition of "Mother Goose." As I arose to get a nearer view of the
child, I saw a slender, simply dressed lady, with a beautiful but
careworn face, evidently approaching with the same intention. At the
sight of me she suddenly paused; a look of recognition seemed to be
vaguely struggling in her features,--she turned around, and walked
rapidly away. The thought immediately flashed through me that it was
the same face I had seen under the gas-lamp on the evening when the
child was found. Moreover, the type, although not glaringly Norse,
corresponded in its general outline to Storm's description. Fearing to
excite her suspicion, I forced my face into the most neutral
expression, stooped down to converse with the baby, and then sauntered
off with a leisurely air toward "Ward's Indian Hunter." I had no doubt
that if the lady were the child's mother, she would soon reappear; and
I need not add that my expectations proved correct. After having
waited some fifteen minutes, I saw her returning with swift, wary
steps and watchful eyes, like some lithe wild thing that scents danger
in the air. As she came up to the nurse, she dropped down into the
seat with a fine affectation of weariness, and began to chat with an
attempt at indifference which was truly pathetic. Her eyes seemed all
the while to be devouring the child with a wild, hungry tenderness.
Suddenly she pounced upon it, hugged it tightly in her arms, and quite
forgetting her _role_, strove no more to smother her sobs. The nurse
was greatly alarmed; I heard her expostulating, but could not
distinguish the words. The child cried. Suddenly the lady rose,
explained briefly, as I afterward heard, that she had herself lately
lost a child, and hurried away. At a safe distance I followed her, and
succeeded in tracking her nearly a mile down Broadway, where she
vanished into wh