Page:Bad Girl (1929).pdf/117

 shrieks, Dot could hear her saying, "Mommie, Mommie. I want my Mommie."

"She's homesick," explained Maude.

"Poor kid," Dot commented.

The negress opened the door. "Sorry, Miss McLaughlin," she said; "she'll be quiet if you let her stay in here."

The child scampered past her nurse and climbed up on Maude's lap. She brushed a little smooth cheek against Maude's face and curled up contentedly. "Mommie," she whispered.

Dot took a deep breath and said, "You know, I'm pregnant."

She half expected Maude to burst out in hearty congratulations, and Maude's horror-stricken expression comforted her.

"Oh, Lord, Dot," she said. "For God's sake, don't have a baby. Oh, the agony of it."

"I wouldn't mind that," said Dot, "if only—"

"You wouldn't mind it, eh?" Maude's eyes rested on the curly blond head against her breast. "Fancy that passing through you," she said.

Dot gasped. She'd never thought of childbirth except vaguely. Both Dot and Maude lost sight of the fact that it was not an infant's head they were regarding.

"I've taken some medicine," said Dot, "but it's no good."

"None of it's any good," said Maude. "There's no medicine in the world that will do the trick. You have to have an operation."

"Well, gee, don't that hurt terribly?"

"It does," said Maude, "the first time, because most girls are crazy enough to try it without ether. If you have ether you don't feel a damn thing, where in actually having the baby, they can't very well give you ether until the worst of it's nearly over."