Part 31 (1/2)

”I--I didn't call you in, sir,” said she, looking helplessly at the clerk.

”I called you in, officer,” said the clerk. ”She didn't know what to do.”

”Will, it's up to you, ma'am. We'll find him if yez say so.”

”Do you know any one else in Chicago?” asked the clerk. ”Maybe there's some one you could go to while they're trying to find your husband.”

”I don't know any one here,” she said, despairingly.

”Don't you want to leave your grip here? We'll take care of it till you come after it.”

”That'll be all right, ma'am. It'll be safe here, an' yez don't want to be luggin' it around town wid that kid on yer hands. L'ave it here,” said Officer Maher, and he picked it up and carried it behind the prescription counter before she could remonstrate. The clerk handed her a card containing the name and location of the store.

”Oh, I do know some one here,” she cried suddenly, her face brightening. ”Miss Celeste Wood. Do you think I could find her?”

To her dismay, the name was not in the directory.

”Does she live with her parents?” asked the clerk.

”I--I think so,” replied Justine, helplessly.

”Do you know her father's name?”

”No, sir. She has a brother named Randall. Would his name be in the book?”

Young Wood's name and address were readily found by the clerk, and Officer Maher advised her to take a cab to the place at once. These men unceremoniously took matters in their own hands, and, almost before she knew it, a cab was taking her northward, bound for the home of the girl who had so often sent her love, through Jud, to the other girl of Proctor's Falls.

The ride gave her ample time to reflect and she had not gone far before her thoughts were running once more in a straight channel. Her pride grew as the situation became plainer, displacing the first dread and confusion. How could she go to a stranger and inflict her with her troubles? What right had she to ask her a.s.sistance or even her interest in this hour of need? Besides all this, the mere confession that she could not find her husband would be humiliating to her and explanations would be sure to put Jud in an unpleasant light. It would mean that she must tell Miss Wood of his failure in everything, a condition which the young woman might politely deplore, but that was all. Her own poor garments now seemed the shabby reflection of Jud's poverty, his degradation, his fall from the high pedestal that had been his by promise. She could not look down into the bright, laughing eyes of her boy and go on to the shameful exposition of his father's misfortune. The red of pride mounted to her brown cheeks and the new fire in her eyes burned bright with the resolution to save him and herself from the humiliation of an appeal to Miss Wood.

Past rows of magnificent homes she was driven, but they interested her not at all. Beneath her pride, however, there battled the fast-diminis.h.i.+ng power of reason. Try as she would, she could not drive out the stubborn spark which told her that she must call upon some one in her helplessness--but that the ”some one” should be a woman was distressing. As she was struggling with pride and reason, the cab turned in and drew up at the curb in front of a handsome house. Her heart gave a great bound of dismay.

”This is No. ----, ma'am,” said the driver, as he threw open the door.

”I--I don't believe I'll go in,” she stammered, trembling in every nerve.

”Where shall I take you?” he asked wearily. Little he cared for the emotions of his fares.

”Are you sure this is the place?” she asked.

”Yes, ma'am. Do you want to get out?”

Fresh courage inspired her, brought about by the sharp realization that it was the only way to find help, humiliating though the method might be. There was no other way, and his question: ”Where shall I take you?” reminded her forcibly that she had no place to go.

”Yes,” she said, decisively, and with the haste of one who is afraid that hesitation will bring weakness, she stepped to the carriage-block.

”Shall I wait, ma'am?”

”I don't know how long I'll be here,” she said, her ignorance confronted by another puzzle. The driver saw in his mind sufficient cause for her uncertainty, and sagely concluded that she was a poor mother who expected to find a home for her babe with the wealthy people who lived at No. ----.

”I'll drive into the park and be back in half an hour, ma'am, if you think you'll be there that long,” he said, and away he rolled. She mounted the steps quickly and, after a long and embarra.s.sing search, found the electric b.u.t.ton and rang the door bell. A trim maid responded. Justine had fondly hoped that Miss Wood herself would come to the door, and her heart sank with disappointment.