Part 70 (1/2)

”Steady, there,” whispered Philip behind them. ”She can't stand any excitement yet.”

But the two had a.s.sumed charge of too many sickrooms together to need his admonition.

Kate took off her hat, smoothed her hair, and went in to Jacqueline, as calmly as if they had parted yesterday.

The sight of the wan, thin face among the pillows, with eyes that looked by contrast enormous and black, shook her composure a little, and she gathered Jacqueline up against her breast without speaking. Jacqueline, too, was silent, clinging to her, touching her mother's hair and cheeks with feeble hands, as if to be sure it was really Kate.

”I knew you would come,” she said at last, with a great sigh.

”Come! Oh, my darling, why didn't you send for me sooner?”

”Because I wanted to surprise you, Mummy. Because I knew when you saw baby, you'd forgive me, you wouldn't care, nothing would matter, except him.... But now there isn't any baby!” The weak voice suddenly rose to a wail. ”There isn't any baby! Nothing has turned out as I had planned.

Oh, Mummy! He was going to be so little, and sweet, and fat--n.o.body who saw him _could_ have stayed angry with me!... And I never heard him cry, I never even felt his tiny hand clutching my finger!... It's because I was wicked,” she moaned, tossing about so that Kate caught the waving hands and held them tight. ”G.o.d wanted to get even with me. So He took the thing I wanted most in all the world. He took my baby. Oh, but that was cruel of Him, no matter how bad I'd been! Wasn't it? Wasn't it, Mummy?”

”Hush, child!” whispered Kate. ”Hus.h.!.+ G.o.d isn't that sort!”

”Yes, He is, too! 'The Lord thy G.o.d is a _jealous_ G.o.d'--ask Phil!--Oh, where _is_ Phil?” She looked wildly around, her voice growing higher and higher. ”He promised he wouldn't go away--he promised he wouldn't ever leave me again. I want him! Phil, Phil!--Oh, _there_ you are!” The relief in her tone was pitiful. ”Don't get where I can't see you again, Flippy darling. It frightens me so! Come here, I want to hold on to you.... Now, tell mother all about the baby. She didn't see him, you know, and I didn't see him either, very well. Oh, why did you let them make me stupid with chloroform, so I couldn't see him? Tell mother about his little ears, and his feet just exactly like mine--”

”Quiet, now,” soothed Philip, striving to hush that painful, excited babble. ”See, your mother is tired! Let's not talk about it now.”

”But I want to talk! I want to, before I forget anything about him. It's the only baby I'll ever have. Mother wants to hear--don't you, Mummy? It was her grandson, you see.”

”What nonsense!” interrupted Kate with tremulous cheerfulness. ”The _only_ baby? You're just eighteen--you shall have all the babies you want!”

”That shows how much you know about it!” cried Jacqueline with a sort of agonized triumph. ”I can't have any more! The doctor said so. I heard him whispering to Jemmy, when he thought I was asleep, and I made her tell me. She didn't want to, but she thought I'd better know.... It isn't as if it would kill _me_ to have them, Mother--that wouldn't matter! But it would kill them. It takes too long. Something is wrong about me.”

Kate glanced at Philip in shocked questioning. He nodded slightly.

”So now you know the sort G.o.d is, Mother! Cruel, cruel! Just because I wasn't good.... Think of it, never any babies! No one to play with, and pet, and take care of.... No one that needs me, or wants me....”

Philip bent over her, ”My darling, the world is full of babies!”

”But not mine. Not one that wants _me_.--Oh, how my breast aches, how my breast aches.”

”This won't do,” murmured Jemima, anxiously. ”She's working herself up into a fever again. I'm going to call the doctor.”

Philip whispered something in her ear, and she hurried to the door.

There was a sound outside that stopped the frantic words on Jacqueline's lips. ”_What's that?_” she breathed. It came again; the fretful whimper of a sleepy child.

Jemima came into the room, carrying small Kitty, newly awakened from a nap on somebody's comfortable knees, and naturally resentful.

”O-oh!” gasped Jacqueline on a long-drawn breath. ”_Give_ her to me!”

Presently, held warm against that aching breast, Mag's baby slept again; and Jacqueline looked from one to the other of those about her with the first dawning of her old, wide, radiant smile.

Soon her own eyes drooped. The three tiptoed toward the door; but quiet as they were the faint voice from the bed followed them: ”Phil, Phil!

where are you?”