“Dr. Abbe says they are the best he ever ate,” she told Polly, a new flush on her cheeks.
For several days Polly had noticed that Lilith had been repeating this and that which “Dr. Abbe said.” It was unusual for Lilith. Now Polly smiled across into her friend’s eyes, and the blush on her cheeks grew deep. That night, at bedtime, she knocked on Polly’s door.
“I saw your light,” she apologized; “may I come in?” Yet when the door was shut behind her she hesitated, her eyes downcast, the color fluttering in her cheeks.
Polly drew her down to the couch. “Tell me,” she encouraged. “Is it some good news?”
“Have you guessed?” Lilith’s happy eyes looked up in surprise.
“Dr. Abbe?” smiled Polly.
The other nodded, blushing deliciously. “I haven’t told anybody but mother. I wanted you to know. He says—this isn’t going to—to hurt you, Polly?”
“Bless you, no!” Polly caught the pink face between her palms and kissed the sweet mouth. “I’m so glad, Lilith. I can’t tell you how glad. It is what I have wanted for a good while.”
“But listen! He says he liked me from the first, but that he didn’t suppose I’d ever care a rap for him, and he says one day you happened to say something about me—I guess praised me up a little—you know, as you do sometimes—and it made him wonder if I ever could care. It was after that he asked me to go to Skyboro with him—the day of the thunder-storm—and since then he has come in my way more or less. Still, I didn’t think he was in earnest. I thought all the time that he was in love with you.”
“I’m glad you are mistaken,” said Polly.