The Pull of the Stars

Julia leaves to find Dr. Lynn and ask her to sign Mary’s baby’s birth certificate. She could have any doctor sign the birth certificate, but she “kept asking after Dr. Lynn” (205). A junior nurse directs Julia to the end of the hall, where Dr. Lynn is using a small room as an office. Dr. Lynn praises Julia for helping Mary deliver a healthy baby and comments that she can’t go home because she knows the police are looking for her. Julia notices that Dr. Lynn wears a fur coat, and Dr. Lynn explains, “I’ve been trying to pass for an officer’s widow in a coat borrowed from a comrade who’s married to a count […] I affect to be a little lame in my left leg” (206). Dr. Lynn’s description of her disguise makes Julia laugh. Julia asks if it’s true that Dr. Lynn is guilty of a plot that involved smuggling guns from Germany. Dr. Lynn explains that this story is a conspiracy to justify locking people up; in reality, she and her fellow comrades were simply involved in a protest. Julia thinks, “I wondered if that could really have happened, that the gun-running conspiracy was trumped up.