e has
specialized on diseases of children. I think, too, he can be induced
to come."

"Have you his address?"

The Doctor drew a package of papers from an inner pocket, and ran them
through. Then he dived into a second pocket, finally stopping at a
card which he handed his questioner.

"I will call him up," she decided, and disappeared in the hallway.

For a while the low sound of a voice filled up the spaces of desultory
talk in the library. Then Mrs. Jocelyn came back, her eyes so
sparkling that Polly thought she knew what the answer had been.

"Don't everybody ask the same question!" laughed the lady, pausing
mischievously to note the inquiring faces. "If you wish to know
whether he is coming, I will tell you. I didn't invite him! I didn't
intend to invite him! I only wished to talk over some few little
essentials--such as salary and so on. No," she continued impressively,
meeting the Doctor's mystified expression with a knowing smile, "I
don't want Dr. Lanier for the head of 'The House of Joy,' however
suited he may be for the place. I have set my heart on another, a
younger man, but one equally well fitted for the position. He is
modest of his attainments, yet he is already being sought for outside
of his own city. He has made a specialty of children's diseases, and
has been wonderfully successful in his field of work. I know he would
make the new hospital indeed a House of Joy to thousands of little
ones. I am speaking of Dr. Robert Dudley, for he is the man I want,
and if I cannot have him I won't build any hospital!"

Everybody had turned towards the Doctor, who sat motionless in the
sudden hush, the color brightening in his face, his eyes bent on the
arm of his chair. Then he looked up.

"My dear Mrs. Jocelyn," he began,--and Polly afterwards confided to
David that his voice sounded so queer and shaky, she was afraid he was
going to cry,--"you have paid me the greatest honor that--"

"Didn't I tell you there was something perfectly splendid?" whispered
Leonora softly, in Polly's ear, unable to keep still a moment longer.
"I knew it all the time! I knew she wanted him! And that isn't all!
Oh, my!--no!"

The most of the Doctor's little speech was quite lost to Polly, for
when Leonora stopped, everybody seemed to be talking at once. Then,
in a flash, Polly connected two things,--the position her father was
to have and the "salary" of which Mrs. Jocelyn had talked with the
great surgeon. There would be