Pollyanna reddened and looked abashed.
"Dear me, I reckon maybe I did forget the game this time," she admitted. "And of course there IS something about it I can be glad for, if I'll only hunt for it. I can be glad that—that it will HAVE to stop raining sometime 'cause God said he WOULDN'T send another flood. But you see, I did so want it to be pleasant to-day."
"Why, especially?"
"Oh, I—I just wanted to go to walk in the Public Garden." Pollyanna was trying hard to speak unconcernedly. "I—I thought maybe you'd like to go with me, too." Outwardly Pollyanna was nonchalance itself. Inwardly, however, she was aquiver with excitement and suspense.
"I go to walk in the Public Garden?" queried Mrs. Carew, with brows slightly uplifted. "Thank you, no, I'm afraid not," she smiled.
"Oh, but you—you wouldn't REFUSE!" faltered Pollyanna, in quick panic.
"I have refused."
Pollyanna swallowed convulsively. She had grown really pale.
"But, Mrs. Carew, please, PLEASE don't say you WON'T go, when it gets pleasant," she begged. "You see, for a—a special reason I wanted you to go—with me—just this once."
Mrs. Carew frowned. She opened her lips to make the "no" more decisive; but something in Pollyanna's pleading eyes must have changed the words, for when they came they were a reluctant acquiescence.