"Polly!"
"She can!" Polly addressed the president.
"I don't doubt it," Nelson Randolph declared, "and I should be delighted to hear her."
"You wouldn't be delighted at all," Miss Sterling laughed. "You would want to stop me long before I had finished one page. My fingers would be lost in no time."
He dissented with courtliness, and Polly wheedled until Doodles and Blue came to add their urging to hers; but in the end they had to let Miss Sterling have her way, which was to remain outside of the entertaining circle.
So Polly sang, "Such a li'l' fellow," and "Daisytown Gossip." Then
Mrs. Winslow Teed was beguiled into singing the old song of "The
Beggar Girl," and if her voice were a bit uncertain, on the whole
it was sweet and received well-earned applause.
Games interspersed the music, and it was discovered that the president of June Holiday Home, as well as the eldest of the Home residents, was quite as clever in guesses as the young folks.
Either by chance or intention,—Juanita Sterling could not decide which,—Nelson Randolph appeared to have established himself for the evening at her side. Others came and went, but the president stayed.
"I wonder when we shall hear Caruso," she said. "He is on the programme; I think they must be waiting until the moon is high."
"Caruso?" he repeated with a puzzled look. "Not—"