would. I'd feel safer about her," said Olga.

"And her mother?" the nurse questioned with a searching look.

"I won't tell her where you live. You can bring the baby back in the
morning if she's better--if not, keep her till she is. I'll pay
you--when I can."

"This isn't a pay-case," the nurse said in her crisp way, "it's a case
of life-saving. Then I'll take her away now, before--anybody--comes to
interfere."

An hour later Sonia came home. In her absorption over the baby, Olga had
quite forgotten about Laura's note, and she asked no questions. That
puzzled Sonia.

"What's happened?" she demanded abruptly. "You look as if you'd seen a
ghost."

"I feel as if I had," Olga answered gravely.

"What do you mean, Olga?"

"The baby is sick."

"The baby?" Sonia cast a swift glance about, then hurried to the
bedroom. "Where is she? What have you done with her?" she cried.

"Sonia, a nurse came here this afternoon, and she said some one had
been poisoning the baby with soothing syrup."

"Poisoning her!" Sonia echoed under her breath.

"She had had an overdose," said Olga. "O Sonia, how _could_ you give her
that dangerous stuff?"

"How'd I know it was dangerous? An old nurse told me it was harmless,"
Sonia defended herself, but the colour had faded out of her face and her
eyes were full of terror.

Olga told her what the nurse had said. "I asked her to take the baby
home with her to-night. I knew that she would take better care of her
than we could," she ended.

Sonia was too frightened to object. "I didn't know. Of course I wouldn't
have given her the stuff if I had known," she said again and again, and
finally to turn her thoughts to something else, Olga asked about the
place.

"Yes, they took me. I am to begin Monday," Sonia answered briefly.

Neither of them slept much that night, and immediately after breakfast
Olga hurried over to Miss Kennan's. The nurse met her with a smile.

"She's better--she'll pull through--and she's a darling of a baby,
Olga," she said. "But you'll have to watch her closely for a while. That
deadly stuff has weakened her so!"

"O, I will, I will!" Olga promised. A great love for the little creature
filled her heart, as she stooped to kiss her.

For a month after this, things went better. Sonia was at the store from
eight to six, and Olga in her quiet rooms, worked steadily except when
the baby claimed her attention. The baby wanted more and more attention
as the days went