‘The Good God bless Grand’mère and Papa and Maman and everybody,’ said Anne Marie, ‘and bless Polly Perkins too.’
As for creeping downstairs that night, to eat the wedding cake with the tiny bride and groom standing, arm in arm, on top, Anne Marie never thought of it again. Polly Perkins had made her forget all about it.
CHAPTER V
OUT IN THE SNOW
It was a snowy day, and Anne Marie was very happy.
She was sitting in one corner of the front room—Grand’mère with her knitting in the opposite corner—holding Polly Perkins in her arms and gently singing and rocking her to sleep.
Anne Marie enjoyed a peaceful little time like this. She liked to hear the hiss of the snow against the window-pane. She liked the warm, comfortable feel of Polly in her arms. Above all she liked to look down into Polly’s smiling face because it always made Anne Marie feel like smiling, too.
Now she gave her dolly a tight little hug, and gently placed a kiss on Polly’s red lips.
‘Are you happy, Dearie?’ whispered Anne Marie. ‘I am. Oh, how I hope no one ever comes to take you away from me.’
If Polly could only have spoken, without startling everybody and making them jump, she would have answered truthfully that she was happy, too. Anne Marie had loved her dearly from the very moment that she had first seen Polly, and Polly with her tender heart had soon learned in her turn to love Anne Marie.
But do not think for a moment that Polly had forgotten Patty King. Patty was Polly’s own mother, as it were. She felt toward Anne Marie as one might toward an aunt or a kind cousin or even an older sister or friend. But she still hoped that some happy day she would find herself back in Patty’s arms again.