"I feel as if I could dance forever," cried Polly, when Amy Garrett turned away from the piano and declared she would play no more--and she still pirouetted on one foot, to come up red as a rose to the group.
"Look at Polly"s cheeks!" cried Amy.
"You"ve been a white little minx so long," said Alexia, putting a fond arm around Polly; "I went home and cried every day, after I would steal around the back way to see how Phronsie was"--
"Won"t Phronsie be downstairs soon?" asked Amy.
"I don"t know," said Polly. "Papa-Doctor is going to be dreadfully careful of her, that she doesn"t get up too soon."
"Say, Polly," cried another girl, "don"t you have to take a lot of pills and stuff, now that Dr. Fisher is your father?"
Polly threw back her head and laughed merrily. It sounded so strangely to her to hear the sound echoing through the room so long silent, that she stopped suddenly.
"Oh, girls! I can"t hardly believe even yet that Phronsie is almost well," she cried.
"Well, you"d better," advised Alexia philosophically, "because she is, you know. Do laugh again, Polly; it"s good to hear you."
"I can"t help it," said Polly, "Cathie asked such a funny question."
"Cathie"s generally a goose," said Alexia coolly.
"Thank you," said Cathie, a tall girl, with such light hair and sallow face that she looked ten years older than her fourteen summers. "I sometimes know quite as much as a few other people of my acquaintance,"
she said pointedly.
"I didn"t say but that you did," said Alexia composedly. "I said you were generally a goose. And so you are. Why, everybody knows that, Cath."
"Come, come, girls, don"t fight," said Polly. "How can you when Phronsie is getting better? Alexia didn"t mean anything, Cathie."
"Yes, she did," declared Cathie with a pout; "she"s always meaning something. She"s the hatefullest thing I ever saw!"
"Nonsense!" said Polly, with a gay little laugh. "She says perfectly dreadful things to me, and so I do to her, but we don"t either of us mind them."
"Well, those are in fun," said Cathie; "that"s a very different matter"--
"So you must make these in fun," said Polly. "I would if I were you."
But she drew away from Alexia"s arm.
"Polly, don"t be an idiot and fight with me," whispered Alexia in her ear.
"Go away," said Polly, shaking her off.
"Polly, Polly, I"ll say anything if you won"t look like that. See here, Cathie, let"s make up," and she ran over, seized the tall girl by the waist and spun her around till she begged to stop.
"Is that your way of making up?" cried Cathie, when she had the breath to speak.
"Yes; it is as good as any other way. It spins the nonsense out of you.
There!" with a last pat on the thin shoulder, she left her, and ran back to Polly.
"It"s all done," she cried. "I"m at peace with the whole world. Now don"t look like an ogre any longer."
"Phronsie"s actually hungry now all the time," confided Polly in a glow, "and we can"t get enough to satisfy her."
"Good--good!" cried the girls.
"I"m going to send her some of my orange jelly," declared Alexia. "I"ll make it just as soon as I go home. Do you think she will like it, Polly?" she asked anxiously.
"Yes, I do believe she will," said Polly, "because she loves oranges so."
"Well, I shan"t make any old orange jelly," cried Cathie, her nose in the air. "Faugh! it"s insipid enough!"
"But "tisn"t when it"s made the way Alexia makes it," said Polly, viewing in alarm the widening of the breach between the two. "I"ve eaten some of hers, and it"s too splendid for anything."
"I don"t know anything about hers, but all orange jelly I have tasted is just horrid. I hate it! I"m going to make almond macaroons. They"re lovely, Polly."
"Oh! don"t, Cathie," begged Polly in distress.
"Why not, pray tell," whirling on one set of toes. "You needn"t be afraid they won"t be good. I"ve made them thousands of times."
"But she couldn"t eat them," said Polly. "Just think, almond macaroons!
Why, Papa-Doctor would"--
"Now I know the doctor makes you take perfectly terrible things, and won"t let you eat anything. And macaroons are the only things I can make. It"s a shame!" and down sat Cathie in despair on an ottoman.
"What"s the matter?" Dr. Fisher put his head in at the doorway, his spectacled eyes sending a swift glance of inquiry around.
"O dear me!" exclaimed Cathie in a fright, jumping up and clutching the arm of the girl next to her. "Don"t let Polly tell him what I said--don"t."
"Polly won"t tell," said the girl, with a superb air; "don"t you know any better, Cathie Harrison, you goose, you!"
To be called a goose by two persons in the course of an hour was too much for Cathie"s endurance, and flinging off the girl"s arm, she cried out pa.s.sionately, "I won"t stay; I"m going home!" and rushed out the door.
Dr. Fisher turned from a deliberate look at the girl"s white cheeks, as she ran past, to the flushed ones before him.
"I"m very sorry that anything unpleasant has happened. I dropped in to tell you of a little surprise, but I see it"s no time now."
"Oh, Papa-Doctor!" cried Polly, flying up to him from the center of the group, "it was nothing--only"--
"A girl"s quarrel is not a slight thing, Polly," said little Dr. Fisher gravely, "and one of your friends has gone away very unhappy."
"Oh! I know it," said Polly, "and I"m so sorry."
"We can"t any of us help it," said Alexia quickly. "Cathie Harrison has the temper of a gorilla--so there, Dr. Fisher."
Dr. Fisher set his spectacles straight, and looked at Alexia, but he did not even smile, as she hoped he would do. "I can"t help it," she said, tracing the pattern of the carpet with the toe of her boot, "she makes us all so uncomfortable, oh! you can"t think. And I wish she"d stay home forever."
Still no answer from the doctor. He didn"t act as if he heard, but bowing gravely, he withdrew his head and shut the door.
"O dear, dear!" cried Alexia, when they had all looked at each other a breathing s.p.a.ce. "Why didn"t he speak? I"d much rather he"d scold like everything than to look like that. Polly, why don"t you say something?"