Part 17 (2/2)

”Father,” she began, atilt on the arm of his chair, ”should you like to buy this house yourself?”

”Possibly, if I had plenty of money; but what little I have is tied up where I can't get at it conveniently.”

”Oh, then you can buy it right away!” Polly cried gleefully. ”You can take my two thousand dollars! Won't that be enough?”

Dr. Dudley's lips set themselves firmly, and he shook his head.

”No, Thistledown, I cannot touch your money. Don't you remember, I told you it must stay where it is until you are of age?”

”Oh, but this is different!” she urged. ”Please take it--do!”

Her entreaties, however, could not prevail against the Doctor's judgment.

”What shall we do, then?” she complained.

”Keep still for the present,” he laughed. ”The house isn't sold yet, perhaps won't be. Don't worry over it, Thistledown! There will be some way out, and a good way, too. Your Cousin Floyd told me to-night that the Royal is due to-morrow. You know that is the steamer his father sailed on, so you may expect to see your uncle by Friday. Floyd thinks he will come up at once.”

”I shall like him if he is as nice as Floyd,” returned Polly thoughtfully.

Dr. Dudley said nothing. He was weighing love and legal rights against wealth and near kins.h.i.+p. The balance did not appear to be in his favor.

On Thursday Polly was thrown into a pleasant excitement by the telephone message that came to Dr. Dudley. Uncle Maurice Westwood was in New York, and would motor up to Fair Harbor the next morning, to see his son and his new niece.

”I shall have to stay home from school, shan't I?” Polly questioned eagerly.

”I think not,” was the quiet answer. ”It is uncertain what time he will come, so things had better go on as usual.”

”But what if he should go back before I got home?” worried Polly.

Mrs. Dudley laughed. ”No danger of that! Don't you think your uncle will be as anxious to see you as you are to see him?”

”Maybe,” she replied doubtfully.

She felt that so unusual an occasion called for her best dress and a stately waiting for the visitor, instead of going to school in her common frock just as on ordinary days when nothing happened. But she made no further objection, joining David on the front walk, and telling him that ”Uncle Maurice” was actually coming.

Returning at noon, Polly ran nearly all the way, so eager was she to see if her uncle's car were in front of the house. To her disappointment the only vehicle in sight was a grocer's team at Colonel Gresham's side gate.

”I'm afraid he's gone,” she lamented under her breath; yet she hurried round to the kitchen door, and was relieved of her fear by hearing voices in the living-room, her mother's and a deeper one that she did not know.

Uncle Maurice looked a little as Polly had pictured, patterning him by his young son; but she had not made sufficient allowance for years, and he was older and very much bigger than she had imagined he would be. His smile was pleasant, like Floyd's, and his greeting cordial and even fatherly. When Dr. Dudley came in he found her chatting familiarly upon her uncle's knee.

It was not until after dinner that Mr. Westwood spoke of Polly's future. Then his first sentence almost caught away her breath.

”Well, Doctor, I suppose you are going to give this little girl to me.”

”It will be as Polly says,” replied the physician, with a grave smile.

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