He saw that the little girl was weak and trembling and though he did not know the cause, he wisely concluded the best plan was to keep her mind off the matter as long as he could.
So he chatted cheerfully on, meanwhile helping her to rise and guiding her to the dining-room where he offered her a couple of ladies’-fingers and a glass of raspberry juice to “sort-of give you an appetite for your luncheon,” he explained.
But, somehow, Polly’s head had begun to ache and she felt as if the room were rocking. She did not want anything to eat, she only wanted to lie down somewhere and go to sleep. Her eyelids drooped and her head nodded. James, thinking she might have had a bad fall, racked his brains for jokes that would be funny enough to keep her awake and he was just about to give up in despair when the bell rang and in came Hannah with Priscilla clinging to her hand while she clasped a pretty rag-doll to her bosom. Both were as white as paper. Priscilla was crying softly. Before James could open his lips Hannah gasped wildly:
“Polly! Whatever shall I do? She’s running the streets! She’ll get killed. If he catches her he’ll beat her, maybe! Oh, dear! the young ruffian! I was just coming out of the shop when I saw—— But she was off like a shot from a shovel and he after her. I couldn’t keep up with them, not if I’d been paid a million dollars for it, and in a minute they were out of sight. Oh, that poor child! Where is she now?” and Hannah wrung her hands.
James looked bewildered as well he might. “I haven’t the least notion what you’re talking about,” he said, “but I kind of dimly make out you’re worried about Polly. Well, you don’t need to be. She’s in the dining-room, all safe and sound, though a bit unsteady in the feet and dizzy in the head, by the looks of her.”
But Hannah had not waited to hear more than the words that told her Polly was safe. The next instant she was in the dining room with the little girl gathered tight in her arms. Polly tried to smile at her and at Priscilla who was gently patting her arms and whispering something that no one could hear, but she dared not keep her eyes open when the room whirled about so dizzily and Hannah had to call on James to carry her up-stairs and put her on the nursery lounge. It was while she was curled up there, sleeping off her fright and fatigue, with Priscilla sitting on guard beside her, that Hannah told James what had happened. She did not mind his frequent interruptions of “Good girl!” “First-rate!” “Hurrah for Polly!” for she was as excited over the adventure as he was, and was glad to have the child appreciated for her part in it. The story had to be gone over again from beginning to end for the benefit of Priscilla’s mother and Miss Cicely and when Polly woke it was to find herself famous. She was surprised and a little shamefaced at the praise she received. She could not see why they made so much of her. She had “just made that naughty boy give back Priscilla’s doll, that was all. Of course she knew he’d be mad when she boxed his ears, but a boy was a coward who made a little girl cry and he ought to be punished. Then, of course, she ran when he chased her and—and she snatched up his papers ’cause somehow, it came into her mind that if she took them he would forget about Priscilla’s doll. It was too bad she had scared Hannah. She would try not to worry her any more.”
Miss Cissy kissed her tenderly and so did Mrs. Duer, at which Polly felt as if she were a queen who had just been crowned. And that was the end of the affair as far as she knew.
Priscilla seemed to be thriving so splendidly that it was decided to leave the city much earlier than usual so she could spend the bright spring days entirely out of doors and get the good of the beautiful country air.