"I could not deceive Eddie."
"Oh, why not? Why, for Gawd’s sake, tell the truth and spoil Eddie’s life, and be the death of this poor little feller and the ruin of me? Oh, just take him! Take him!" she cried, tears running down her cheeks. "You’ll love him. You’ll be awful glad to feel him next to you in bed, first thing in the morning. You’ll love him so. You’re the only one I know in the world that I wouldn’t mind leaving him with. I know he cries an awful lot, but that’s because he’s sick; and if you take him, and he has the best of everything, he’ll soon be fat and well, and you’ll be proud of him. Oh, say you will!"
Tears stood in Polly’s eyes.
"My dear, you mustn’t give up your child. I’ll help you, so that you can keep him."
"No, no! I can’t! I’m going to marry Eddie."
"Give up the idea. Go off somewhere and live quietly with your dear little baby."
"No! You can’t support me and him both. It would just be me and mommer over again—me going out by the day to keep him alive, and the two of us having nothing—no chances, no nothing. That’s if he’d even live. No; the only, only thing is for you to take him."
"But, Angelica, what in the world would I do with him?"
"Get a good nurse. I’ll find one, if you want, from a hospital."
"But what would people say?"