of making trouble and would
manage to do it if they lived in a howling wilderness. I 'm afraid I 've
got a spice of it, and if I had the chance, should be as bad as any of
them. I 've tried it and liked it, and maybe this is the consequence of
that night's fun."

Here Polly leaned back and looked up at the little mirror over the
chimney-piece, which was hung so that it reflected the faces of those
about the fire. In it Polly saw a pair of telltale eyes looking out from
a tangle of bright brown hair, cheeks that flushed and dimpled suddenly
as the fresh mouth smiled with an expression of conscious power, half
proud, half ashamed, and as pretty to see as the coquettish gesture with
which she smoothed back her curls and flourished a white hand. For
a minute she regarded the pleasant picture while visions of girlish
romances and triumphs danced through her head, then she shook her hair
all over her face and pushed her chair out of range of the mirror,
saying, with a droll mixture of self-reproach and self-approval in her
tone; "Oh, Puttel, Puttel, what a fool I am!"

Puss appeared to endorse the sentiment by a loud purr and a graceful
wave of her tail, and Polly returned to the subject from which these
little vanities had beguiled her.

"Just suppose it is true, that he does ask me, and I say yes! What a
stir it would make, and what fun it would be to see the faces of the
girls when it came out! They all think a great deal of him because he is
so hard to please, and almost any of them would feel immensely flattered
if he liked them, whether they chose to marry him or not. Trix has tried
for years to fascinate him, and he can't bear her, and I 'm so glad!
What a spiteful thing I am. Well, I can't help it, she does aggravate me
so!" And Polly gave the cat such a tweak of the ear that Puttel bounced
out of her lap in high dudgeon.

"It don't do to think of her, and I won't!" said Polly to herself,
setting her lips with a grim look that was not at all becoming. "What
an easy life I should have plenty of money, quantities of friends,
all sorts of pleasures, and no work, no poverty, no cold shoulders or
patched boots. I could do so much for all at home how I should enjoy
that!" And Polly let her thoughts revel in the luxurious future her
fancy painted. It was a very bright picture, but something seemed
amiss with it, for presently she sighed and shook her head, thinking
sorrowfully, "Ah, but I don't love him, and I 'm afraid