“I do,” cried Maud; “I think Miss Polly is the loveliest lady in the world, and I’m going to ‘minister’ to her, the way you said. I don’t know what ‘ministering’ means, but I’m going to find out, and then I’ll do it just as hard as I can.”
CHAPTER VI
PAUL
IT was Grandma who made the exciting announcement at the breakfast table, one morning about ten days later.
“Julia is coming to New York next week,” she remarked to Aunt Kate, looking up from a letter she was reading, “and she wants to bring Paul with her.”
“Oh, how exciting!” cried Molly, dropping her spoon into the oatmeal in the excitement of the moment. “You’ll let them come, won’t you, Grandma?”
Grandma frowned. One of her strictest rules was that children were not to talk at meal-times.
“Certainly my daughter is always welcome to her mother’s house,” she said, coldly, and Molly, very much embarrassed, dropped her eyes to the table-cloth.
Julia was Grandma’s married daughter, Mrs. Chester, who lived in Boston, and whose only child Paul had long been a subject of considerable interest to the four little girls. They had never seen Paul, but according to his mother—who generally paid flying visits to her family in New York several times a year—he was a very remarkable little boy. Dulcie glanced at Aunt Kate, to see how she was taking the news, but her somewhat inexpressive face appeared quite unruffled.
“Paul hasn’t been very well, it seems,” Mrs. Winslow went on, “and the doctor advises change of air. Julia has taken him out of school for a month, and wants to bring him here.”
“I hope Julia isn’t as fussy over the boy as she used to be,” said Aunt Kate, buttering a slice of toast as she spoke. “He always seemed to me about as strong as any child of his age, and I know his father thinks he is. He told me the last time I was in Boston that Julia coddles Paul entirely too much.”