The Senator’s daughter carried out the hopes of the doctors to the highest degree, and there came a day when Polly, at Ilga’s own request, was sent for.
Miss Hortensia Price was the sick girl’s nurse, and Polly had learned with surprise that a strong friendship was growing between them. Nevertheless she was unprepared for any manifestation of it, and her joy in seeing their evident love for each other made the first moments of her visit less conscious than they otherwise might have been, for she had been wondering if her schoolmate attached any blame to her for the injuries received in the accident.
“Miss Price knows—I’ve told her!”—Ilga began abruptly; “but I want you to know, for they said you cried when you heard I was hurt, and you thought it was your fault. It wasn’t! Not the least bit! It was all mine! Mrs. Jocelyn’s man went into the store, and told us to wait. I didn’t see why we should,—and I don’t now, if the ponies were properly trained. I wanted just to drive around the square, but Leonora wouldn’t; so I began to fool with the whip. I switched it about, and teased the ponies. Leonora said she’d never touched them with it, and I told her I didn’t see what a whip was good for if it wasn’t used—and I don’t! If she’d been quiet, I shouldn’t have been so possessed about it; but she kept saying, ‘Don’t, Ilga! Please don’t, Ilga!’ and I hate being nagged. So finally I gave it a good smart flirt, and off they went like a shot! Of course, I was scared, and hardly knew what I did do. Leonora said, real low, ‘Keep still! Don’t stir!’ I do’ know as I should have jumped, if she hadn’t told me not to. But I did, and that’s the last I knew till the doctors were fussing over me.”
“But you’re going to get well now!” Polly burst out delightedly.
The pale face on the pillow reflected the joy. “Yes,” Ilga replied, “I guess I am, unless they all lie to me. I know Miss Price doesn’t,” with a nodding smile towards the window where the nurse sat reading. “But I didn’t s’pose I ever should one time. I don’t b’lieve I should either, if it hadn’t been for Dr. Dudley. Polly, your father is just splendid!”
Polly’s eyes suddenly filled with happy tears. This was something she had not anticipated—at least, not yet.
The nurse came with a few spoonfuls of nourishment, and the talk passed to other things; but Polly went away feeling that Ilga’s praise was her apology, and that her enemy had been miraculously changed into a friend.
Yet there were hours when the old Ilga was at the front, domineering and impertinent, and Polly would be called upon to exercise all her tact and patience in order to keep things pleasant during her visits. But, little by little, as the convalescent gathered strength of body she also gained in self-control. Miss Price and Polly were her adored examples of beautiful living, and it was plain that she was honestly trying to attain to what she admired in them, although the dissimilarity of eleven and thirty made the task somewhat more difficult.
Miss Hortensia Price seemed to Polly to be more gentle than in the old days. Or was it that she now understood her better? She could not tell; but it was as unending a wonderment as a joy that the dignified nurse and the untrained, ungoverned girl should have become such close friends.