He came trotting up to the suit case which Marie had spread wide open on

the bed, stood up on his tippy toes, and peered in. The quirky smile was

twitching his lips, and the look he turned toward Marie's back was full

of twinkle. He reached into the suit case, clutched a clean handkerchief

and blew his nose with solemn precision; put the handkerchief back all

crumpled, grabbed a silk stocking and drew it around his neck, and was

straining to reach his little red Brownie cap when Marie turned and

caught him up in her arms.

"No, no, Lovin Child! Baby mustn't. Marie is going to take her lovin'

baby boy to find--" She glanced hastily over her shoulder to make sure

there was no one to hear, buried her face in the baby's fat neck and

whispered the wonder, "--to find hims daddy Bud! Does Lovin Man want

to see hims daddy Bud? I bet he does want! I bet hims daddy Bud will

be glad--Now you sit right still, and Marie will get him a cracker, an'

then he can watch Marie pack him little shirt, and hims little bunny

suit, and hims wooh-wooh, and hims 'tockins--"

It is a pity that Bud could not have seen the two of them in the next

hour, wherein Marie flew to her hopeful task of packing her suit case,

and Lovin Child was quite as busy pulling things out of it, and getting

stepped on, and having to be comforted, and insisting upon having on

his bunny suit, and then howling to go before Marie was ready. Bud would

have learned enough to ease the ache in his heart--enough to humble him

and fill him with an abiding reverence for a love that will live, as

Marie's had lived, on bitterness and regret.

Nearly distracted under the lash of her own eagerness and the fear that

her mother would return too soon and bully her into giving up her wild

plan, Marie, carrying Lovin Child on one arm and lugging the suit case

in the other hand, and half running, managed to catch a street car and

climb aboard all out of breath and with her hat tilted over one ear.

She deposited the baby on the seat beside her, fumbled for a nickel,

and asked the conductor pantingly if she would be in time to catch the

four-five to the city. It maddened her to watch the bored deliberation

of the man as he pulled out his watch and regarded it meditatively.

"You'll catch it--if you're lucky about your transfer," he said, and

rang up her fare and went off to the rear platform, just as if it were

not a matter of life and death at all. Marie could have shaken him for

his indifference; and as for the motorman, she was convinced that he ran

as slow as he dared, just to drive her crazy. But even with these two

inhuman monsters doing their best to make her miss the train, and with

the street car she wanted to transfer to running off and leaving her at

the very last minute, and with Lovin Child suddenly discovering that he

wanted to be carried, and that he emphatically did not want her to carry

the suit case at all, Marie actually reached the depot ahead of the

four-five train. Much disheveled and flushed with nervousness and her

exertions, she dragged Lovin Child up the steps by one arm, found a seat

in the chair car and, a few minutes later, suddenly realized that she

was really on her way to an unknown little town in an unknown part of

the country, in quest of a man who very likely did not want to be found

by her.




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