Nurse Nan tried to remember what
she had done, but she could only see,
her mind's eye, the features of
Charlie Abbott, and they seemed to
wear a sarcastic smile. She, who had
snubbed him, she, the competent and
self-contained one, had mixed the ba
bies.
She thought of the mothers, doomed
to go through life with the wrong
babies. She thought of pauper babies
growing up to be millionaires, and
heirs to vast estates doomed to life irr
the slums. She pictured the colored
baby growing up among puzzled white
folk, and a white baby fondled in a
negro cabin by a proud foster father
Nurse Nan dashed from the room.
She did not know where she was
going, but it was to be somewhere
miles away from the hospital, which
she would never see again, and she
meant to get there in a very short
time.
As luck would have it Charlie Ab
bott was at the head of the stairs. Ho
saw the flying vision, the wild look in
the fugitive's eyes.
"Why, Miss Keller," he began.
With a sob she sprang past him and
made for the hall. She was outside,
rushing toward the hospital gates.
Charlie Abbott lingered one instant
to take in the situation from the pro
Then:
"Let the mothers wait!" he com
manded curtly, and started after the
fugitive. She had a long start of him,
but love put speed into Charlie's legs.
Besides, it was the first time that he
had seen Nan Keller display any hu
man emotion whatever. He caught
her at the gate, grasped her about the
waist and pulled her into the shade
of a lilac tree.
"It's all rightit's all right, now,"
he expostulated.
