"Oh, David Collins! He's upstairs in the ward. Colonel Gresham took me to catch the Doctor."
And Polly related the story of the chase.
"Collins! Why, it was Jack Collins that Eva Gresham married— the Colonel's niece."
"Yes; David has told me that Colonel Gresham is his mother's uncle," Polly said simply.
"Well, well! So he went after the Doctor for his grand-nephew— and did n't know it till it was all over with! What strange things happen in this world! A pretty good joke on David Gresham!" And the little sad lady actually smiled. Then she sighed. "It is too bad! If they'd only make up! But they never will. David is n't built on the make-up plan—or Eva either, I fancy. Eva Gresham was a beautiful girl," she rambled on, talking more to herself than to her interested listener. "She lived with her uncle from the time her parents died, when she was a tiny child. The Colonel idolized her."
A bit of a break in the soft voice make a momentary pause in the musing. Then it went on again. "He had nothing in the world against Jack Collins, except that he was an artist, and poor. He would n't have been poor, they say, if he had lived. His pictures were beginning to sell at good prices."
Suddenly she came back to Polly.
"So the Colonel is going to take you driving again! Well, my dear, you need n't be afraid he'll forget it; if he said he would, he will. I declare, you look a good deal as Eva used to when she was your age. She had just such golden hair and brown eyes."
"David has blue eyes—the bluest I ever saw," observed Polly.
"He probably favors his father," replied Mrs. Jocelyn.