“No, but you used to be such an intimate friend of Anthony Graham’s. Do you know I look upon him as one of your good works, Betty? I wonder if he will condescend to come to the cabin to see us, now he is such a busy and distinguished person. Is he as much a friend of yours now as he used to be?”
Unexpectedly Betty’s thread broke, so that she was forced to make another knot before replying.
“Friend of mine? No, yes; well, that is we are friendly, of course, only Anthony has grown so fond of Meg Everett lately that he has not much time for any one else. But please don’t speak of anything I ever did for him, Polly. I beg it of you as a special favor. In the first place it was so ridiculously little and in the second I think it pretty hard on Anthony to have an unfortunate accident like that raked up against him now that he has accomplished so much.”
“Oh, all right,” Polly returned, thoughtfully digging into the earth with the toe of her pretty kid slipper.
“Good heavens, speaking of angels or the other thing!” she exclaimed, a moment later, “I do declare if that does not look like Anthony Graham coming directly toward us this instant. Do go and speak to him first, dear, while I manage to scramble out of this hammock.”
Ten minutes later Anthony was occupying the chair lately vacated by Betty, while Polly was once more in a reclining position. Knowing that she was still regarded as a semi-invalid, Anthony had insisted that she must not disturb herself on his account. He had explained that the reason for his call was to find out how she was feeling. So, soon after this statement, Betty had left the two of them together, giving as an excuse the fact that as she had invited Anthony to stay with them to tea she must go to the cabin to help get things ready.
After Betty’s disappearance Polly did not find her companion particularly interesting. He scarcely said half a dozen words but sat staring moodily up toward the dark branches of the enshadowing pine trees. This at least afforded Polly a fine opportunity for studying the young man’s face.
“You have improved a lot, Anthony,” she said finally. “Oh, I beg your pardon, I am afraid I was thinking out loud.”
Her visitor smiled. “Well, so long as your thoughts are complimentary I am sure I don’t mind,” he returned. “Keep it up, will you?”
The girl nodded. “There is nothing I should like better. You know it is odd, but the Princess and I were talking about you just when you appeared. I must say I am amazed at your prominence, Anthony. I never dreamed you would ever amount to so much. It was funny, but Betty used always to have faith in you. I often wondered why.”