It was an inch shorter than the remaining straw, and she smiled up at the Colonel.
“Miss Dudley, may Lone Star and I have the pleasure of your comradeship for the next hour?” he invited, bowing low.
“I shall be very happy to go,” she laughed, sweeping him a little curtsy.
Presently the carriage was ready, Polly and the Colonel jumped in, and Patricia and David sent merry good-byes in the wake of Lone Star’s flying feet.
“I can’t help being glad I won,” confessed Polly, drawing a long breath of delight at the drive in store for her.
Colonel Gresham smiled responsively, tucked the linen duster a little closer, asked her if she were quite comfortable, and then began a little story in the life of his favorite horse.
As they passed through the pleasant streets, between front dooryards banked with flowers, the talk after a while led quite naturally to climbing roses for the Colonel’s own house.
“If only you could see Mrs. Jocelyn’s roses!” Polly wished. “There couldn’t be any lovelier ones.”
She told him of the great single Silver Moons, and pictured them on his own piazza, until he said he must surely have some.