“Well, I for one don’t think it is our place to look for the child, anyway,” asserted Jessie, decisively. “Let the men of the town do it. There are three policemen hanging around all day with nothing to do.”
Nathalie’s cheeks had lost their pink bloom; her face stiffened as she retorted coolly, “Well, just as you please, I see I have made a mistake.” She nerved herself. “I thought kindliness was one of the laws of the organization, and it seemed to me that our pleasure was to take a secondary place when we had an opportunity to do a kind act. If you had seen the poor mother sobbing—”
“Oh, fiddle!” ejaculated Lillie, “those colored people are all emotion; their sobs don’t count for much. I agree with Jessie that the townspeople should send out a search party, and I for one refuse to give up the hike. Who’s on my side?” she ended abruptly, turning and facing the group.
“I!” and “I!” shouted several voices at once in answer.
Nathalie backed towards the edge of the veranda. “I seem to be in the minority,” she said with assumed indifference, although her heart was beating in double-quick time, for something had whispered, “They are very rude, I would resign immediately.” But this suggestion was bravely silenced by the thought, “No, I will not be as small as that, I will show I do not care.”
“There must be some one who thinks as I do,” she ended resolutely, wishing that she could run from this affront to her sensitiveness.
“I am with you, Nathalie!” suddenly cried Helen, walking towards her friend and putting her arm around her.
Grace looked at the bevy of girls who had bunched together, then at the faces of her two friends. In a faint voice she asserted lamely, “And I, Nathalie, I didn’t stop to think—”
“And, Nathalie, you can count me on your side!” broke in a voice at this moment. The girls, alert at the prospect of a division in the group, turned quickly to see Mrs. Morrow place herself by the side of Nathalie, taking her hand as she did so and giving it a cordial squeeze.
Nathalie’s color came racing back and her heart leaped with joy. Ah, then she had not been too officious, after all! She turned to see the girls standing in embarrassed silence with shamed eyes and uncertain mien. But Lillie, who was generally the spokesman of the group when Helen was on the opposite side, cried somewhat pertly, “Why, Mrs. Morrow, do you think it is our place to go and hunt for that colored child? I should think it was the duty of the townspeople to look after those things.”