“It’s just so, Polly,” said Pickering, feeling awfully that he must make the sad droop in her eyes, and the color go out of her face.
“He probably is coming back soon—he may have been cabled back—a dozen things may have happened,” said Jasper. “Don’t feel so badly, dear.”
“Well, Phronsie must never know he has been over,” said Polly. “Promise, Alexia, you never’ll tell her! You won’t, dear, will you?” She ran over and put her arms around Alexia.
“Horses won’t drag it out of me,” declared Alexia. “I won’t ever mention Roslyn May to”—
“Hush!—hush! here she comes,” warned Polly frantically, pinching Alexia’s arm to make her stop.
“Oh, mercy! Well, I didn’t say anything,” said Alexia.
Phronsie came around the veranda corner in her soft white gown. “We’re going to have a candy party to-night,” she said.
“And a peanut party,” cried the children at her heels, as they scurried over the veranda steps. “Tell it all, Phronsie; tell it all.”
“And you’re just in time, Alexia and Pickering,” said Phronsie, with a smile, “to come over to the little brown house after dinner, to the party.”
“And you’ve got to pull candy with me, Mrs. Dodge,” declared Elyot, who just adored her, racing up to possess himself of her long white fingers, glittering with rings.