“I think we will let these little girls go up first,” he said. “I am afraid the shock of seeing us without any preparation might be too much for my sister. I hear she has not been well lately.”
Maggie—for it was the faithful Maggie—looked rather disappointed, but was forced to submit. And then Daisy had an inspiration.
“Couldn’t we take the baby?” she asked, eagerly, appealing to Mrs. Oliver. “Miss Polly loves babies. One of the boarders brought her little nephew to see her once, and she enjoyed it so much. We wouldn’t tell her whose baby it was, just at first, you know. It would be just like doing a thing in a book.”
Mrs. Oliver glanced at her husband.
“I think baby would be good,” she said, “but how about carrying her up-stairs?”
“I’ll tell you what you might do,” broke in Maggie, who was almost as much excited as the children themselves. “The room next Miss Polly’s is vacant just now. You might all come up, and you and the gentleman wait there, while the children take the baby in.”
This suggestion was eagerly adopted, and the whole party proceeded up-stairs. As they climbed flight after flight, the little girls noticed that Miss Polly’s brother grew very grave and silent, and when they reached the top floor, he gave the baby to Dulcie, without a word. There was a moment of breathless anxiety lest baby Oliver should spoil everything by beginning to cry, but she was—as her mother frequently informed her friends—a remarkably amiable child and although she looked a little surprised at being transferred from her father’s arms to those of a stranger, she made no protest, and the next moment had seized one of Dulcie’s long braids, with a crow of delight.
How the children’s hearts beat, as they knocked at Miss Polly’s door, and turned the handle, in answer to her gentle “Come in.” The invalid was not in bed, but in her wheel-chair, engaged in darning stockings, but at sight of her little visitors, and the baby in Dulcie’s arms, she dropped her stocking, with a little cry of surprise and pleasure.
“A baby! how adorable! Oh, my dears, where did it come from? Whose baby is it?”
“She belongs to some people we know,” faltered Dulcie. “We asked if we might bring her to see you. We knew you loved babies.”