"
"Still no news, Fraulein?"
"None. He has disappeared utterly. That isn't so bad, is it? I
could use more rouge."
"It is being much worn. It is strange, is it not, that a child
could be stolen from the hospital and leave no sign!"
The dancer laughed a mirthless laugh. Her voice changed, became
nasal, full of venom.
"Oh, they know well enough," she snapped. "Those nurses know, and
there's a pig of a red-bearded doctor--I'd like to poison him.
Separating mother and child! I'm going to find him, if only to
show them they are not so smart after all."
In her anger she had lapsed into English. Harmony, behind her
curtain, had clutched at her heart. Jimmy's mother!
CHAPTER XXIII
Jimmy was not so well, although Harmony's flight had had nothing
to do with the relapse. He had found Marie a slavishly devoted
substitute, and besides Peter had indicated that Harmony's
absence was purely temporary. But the breaking-up was inevitable.
All day long the child lay in the white bed, apathetic but
sleepless. In vain Marie made flower fairies for his pillow, in
vain the little mice, now quite tame, played hide-and-seek over
the bed, in vain Peter paused long enough in his frantic search
for Harmony to buy colored postcards and bring them to him.
He was contented enough; he did not suffer at all; and he had no
apprehension of what was coming. He asked for nothing, tried
obediently to eat, liked to have Marie in the room.
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