"Truly!" he nodded.
"Why-ee! I never thought as you like Miss Lucy very much! You acted just as if you like High Price better!"
The Doctor's shoulders shook with soft laughter.
"And won't Miss Lucy be nurse up in the ward any more?" Poly queried.
"Not after we are married. We are going to housekeeping. You know the little brown cottage just beyond Colonel Gresham's?"
"The one with vines all over the piazzas?"
"Yes. That is to be our home."
Polly had dropped back on the Doctor's shoulder, and he, absorbed in his happy dreams, did not look down to note the shadow that suddenly swept all joy from the little face. When she spoke again, it was the tone rather than the words that brought him to himself with a pang of compunction.
"That—won't be so very far away," she faltered.
"Oh, Polly!" with a quick tightening clasp, "you did n't suppose we would leave you behind?"