“polly dudley! why didn’t you stay?”
polly stood before her mother in her trim gray suit, her eyes shining with an unusual brightness, her whole being indicative of imprisoned emotion.
“i couldn’t, mother! i couldn’t! i had to come home to talk it over with you and father!” polly was hurriedly pulling off her gloves, her joyous heedlessness reaching even to her finger-tips.
mrs. dudley had grown suddenly limp.
“has david—” she began.
“no, no; it isn’t anything about david.” polly’s voice had never sounded like that when she spoke of david.
“i don’t much care what it is, then.” mrs. dudley sat up straight and drew a little relieved breath. “it seems as if i couldn’t stand his coming back—now. but i don’t see why you didn’t stay as you expected to. didn’t kate stay?”
“oh, yes, mother; but i just couldn’t!—i’ll tell you.”
“didn’t you have a good time? anything gone wrong?”
“yes to the first, and no to the second. don’t[72] be in a hurry! to begin with, overlook mountain is the very loveliest place on earth.”
“and yet you left it,” laughed her mother.
polly laughed, too. “had to!” she said happily. “oh, the road up the mountain!—i wish you could see it. through the most beautiful woods! ferns!—i thought i knew ferns, but i didn’t. millions of them, almost as tall as you are, and so luxurious—why, the sides of the road look as if they had just been decorated for a wedding!—”
“what about a wedding?” came from dr. dudley in the doorway. “evan said you had just come, and i couldn’t understand it. you were so eager to stay the week out.”
“i know it. mother’s had everything bad happening; but it’s all right—or will be if you agree with me—oh, father, you would in one minute if you could see overlook! why, when i got there and looked around i felt as if i were right on top of the world—it is beautiful, it is grand! father, what do you suppose i want to do?”
“no telling what rattle-brained scheme is in that head of yours. out with it! i never could bear suspense.”
polly laughed, a laugh that made her father look at her with joyful eyes. this was his own old polly, before she had begun to be worried with troubles of david collins’s making.
“well,” began the girl, holding her excitement[73] in check, “i want to move paradise ward up on overlook for the summer and autumn.”
nobody spoke. they looked at one another, anxiety on polly’s side, astonishment and half comprehension on the other.
“tell me all about it, little daughter.” dr. dudley drew up a chair.
so polly told; of her delight in the spot; of the marvelous beauty of the view; of the wonderful, intoxicating air; of the plan that had suddenly popped into her head when she waked on sunday morning; of the news that had greeted her at breakfast, just fitting into her scheme, about the brother and sister, owners of a bungalow and a study on the top of overlook, who had just been left a fortune in switzerland and wished to sell their property on the mountain; how it seemed the one place for paradise ward to get strong in; and of how she could not wait an hour beyond to-day to tell her father of her plan and to beg him to accede to her wish.
she was quiet at last, watching with eager eyes her father’s face.
“have you thought of the money it would cost to carry out this plan?” asked the doctor quietly.
“of course,” she acknowledged, “it must depend on mrs. gresham; but i know she will be interested in less than a minute.”
“she surely will be. that, however, is not the question. she has spent a fortune on paradise ward already.”
[74] “she loves to spend it.”
“yes,” he conceded; “yet is it wise for us to incite her to further spending?”
“it truly is,” returned polly with assurance. “think of those dear children! oh, if you could see them outdoors as i do! the rides have done them no end of good—you know how little duke has improved.”
dr. dudley brightened. “that boy’s gain is astonishing.”
“and it isn’t medicine that has done it,” observed polly; “it is fresh air.”
the doctor nodded musingly.
polly’s thoughts skipped from little duke to esther tenniel, the gentle little english maid who—however shy she might be with others—never hesitated to put her arms round the doctor’s neck, just as if she were his own little girl. “i believe,” she said, “that a few months of overlook would make a new child of esther.”
“i should like to see it tried,” dr. dudley admitted.
“then we’ll try it!” exclaimed polly ecstatically.
“i shall have to leave it to your judgment,” said the doctor. “i don’t like to beg for too much.”
“beg!” laughed polly—“oh, father!”
“you haven’t even asked for my approval,” smiled mrs. dudley.
[75] “i don’t need to. i know well enough just what you’d say,” retorted polly.
“i should like to know.”
“why, you’d say, ‘go ahead!’” polly laughed. “and i think i’d better see mrs. gresham this evening. don’t you want to go down with me, mother? do, and help the good cause along.—oh, i forgot! that boy is coming up to-night.”
“what boy?” queried her mother.
“john eustis. well,” sighing, “we’ll have to put it off till morning.”
that mrs. gresham was “interested” in polly’s plan nobody could doubt. the lady’s enthusiasm more than justified polly’s prediction.
“i must see the place at once!” she cried. “we’ll go up to-morrow!”
“to-morrow!” gasped polly.
“why not?” returned mrs. gresham. “no time to lose. summer is well on her way. you can go to-morrow, can’t you?”
“i—guess so,” the girl answered dazedly. she glanced towards her mother.
mrs. dudley smiled assent.
“and you’ll go with us?” invited the elder woman.
mrs. dudley shook her head. “i’m afraid—”
“nonsense! she can, can’t she, polly?”
“yes, do, mother. i’m longing to have you see it.”
she still shook her head, but, as polly said, the shakes were less emphatic.
[76] “let’s start by six o’clock,” went on mrs. gresham. “to-day would have been lovely, but probably to-morrow will be just as nice. you say we can have it now, and with all the furniture?”
“all there is,” polly answered. “of course, there’ll have to be a good deal besides. the living-room is so large and beautiful it will make a lovely ward. at each end is a wide casement window, one opening on the road, the other on the wood—where the deer come down. as i said, about five acres of timber-land go with the place. the house is the best located of all on the mountain, with woods on the north which break the heavy winds. there’s a big fireplace in the living-room, and all sorts of pretty nooks and corners, with shelves and bookracks—oh, you’ll go crazy over it, just as i did! the big room is two stories high, and the stairs lead right up from that to a little balcony which runs clear across the side and opens into the bedrooms. the other building is not far away, an inscription in such pretty letters, the study, is right over the door. you see, the young man is a lawyer, and that was his den. it will do beautifully for a dormitory for the older boys and the doctor that father sends with us—of course, we’ll have to have a doctor.”
“of course,” echoed mrs. gresham absently. “the brother and sister gone?”
“yes, nobody left but the housekeeper, benedicta clapperton—isn’t that a name? but she’s[77] a dear. she told me she hoped i’d buy the place, for she ‘appertained’ to it, and she ‘cackerlated’ i was the ‘facsimile’ of her ‘dear miss flora.’ she adores children, and sally says she is a wonder in the cooking line; so she will probably stuff the ward with soldiers and sailors and a whole barnyard besides. but i have fallen in love with her, and i believe she will be our strongest asset—just you wait and see!”
when mrs. gresham and mrs. dudley were face to face with the “strongest asset” they recalled polly’s statement in some surprise.
mrs. gresham had intuitively pictured the caretaker as middle-aged, plump, and comfortable, with a benevolent smile and a gracious manner. the woman who stood before them was tall, straight, and lean, with a small head and high cheek-bones. her abundant brown hair was drawn smoothly back from her low forehead and wound into a tight coil on top of her head. her frankly curious eyes of light gray appeared to size up her visitors in one unafraid glance, and she extended a big, work-hard hand with a drawling “how d’ ye do?”
so this was benedicta!
polly chanced to make a trivial remark, and mrs. gresham turned with relief.
although the visitors had stopped on the way for luncheon, the housekeeper insisted that they should “stay to dinner,” and already a small table[78] in the living-room was most attractively set with appointments for three.
“yes, benedicta can cook,” mrs. gresham mentally conceded, as she ate with relish the broiled chicken, creamed pease, hot rye muffins with home-made butter, red raspberry pie, and hot coffee topped with whipped cream.
nor did she withhold her praise; upon which benedicta expanded like a flower which needs only the sunshine to bloom into beauty. not that in the one happy moment the cook grew handsome, or that she expressed her thanks in suitable words. only her small eyes grew bright and soft, her thin cheeks reddened with pleasure, as she said, almost scornfully, “amazin’ly astounding ’f i didn’t know how to cook! been at it since i was an infant.”
opinions are versatile notions at best. after that informal meal on overlook mountain the critical wife of colonel gresham looked at benedicta in a humorous and therefore fairer light, and the light in which a person is viewed makes all the difference in one’s opinion of him.
the next day when the party started for home the von winkelried property had passed into the hands of mrs. gresham, and the children’s house of joy was in legal possession of a mountain summer home.
