rt
skirts and dress hats!"

"She doesn't begin to look as young as you do. She looks more than
thirty, and you don't!"

"Polly Dudley!"

"Father says so, anyway!"

"I thank your father for the nattering compliment; but I think he
must be needing glasses."

"No, he doesn't need glasses!" retorted Polly. "His eyes are
first-rate. Dear me! Is it eleven o'clock? I must go home!
Let's start early--by two, can you?"

"Oh, I don't believe I'll go this afternoon!" The voice sounded
weary.

"Why, Miss Nita! you said you would!"

"I know, but I wasn't tired then. I guess I'll have to put it off a
day or two."

"You haven't done anything to tire you! You'll never get well if
you don't go more!" cried Polly plaintively. "And we won't go a
step farther than you like. We needn't ask anybody else, if you'd
rather not--we can go all by ourselves." Polly waited anxiously.

Miss Sterling shook her head with a little sigh. "You go with the
others to-day. I don't feel as if I could."

Polly finally went off, her face downcast. Coaxings had availed
nothing.

CHAPTER X

"GOOD-BYE, PUDDING"

Juanita Sterling scowled a perfunctory thank-you to Mrs. Nobbs, who
handed her a long box. She had come to hate those long boxes.

"I wish he'd keep his old flowers in his greenhouse!" she muttered
disdainfully after the door was well shut. She gazed on the box
with a sigh. Nevertheless, she untied it with hurrying fingers.

Great ruby roses sent their pent-up fragrance straight to her
nostrils, and she drew it in with a breath of delight. Then she
flung the box on the bed and finished putting her dresser in order,
a task with which she had been occupied.

Little jerky bits of scorn were now and then directed toward the
flowers, as if they were responsible for their intrusion. When
their innocence suddenly suggested itself, she smiled.

"Poor things, they can't help it! How should I feel if I were
carried where I was not wanted and then should be blamed for being
there!"

Contritely she took the roses from their box and put them in her
prettiest vase, quite as if she would make amends. She sat down by
them and looked the matter in the face.

"I can't have these where they will remind me all day long of being
a silly old woman!" She considered the blossoms with a dismal
face. "What shall I do with them? I'd put them in a bundle under
the bed, only I'd feel so sorry for them--no, I can't do that! I