"I am sorry enough to have to bring all this back," he said; "but, Thistledown, I must discover a way, if possible, to keep you from that woman. I want to find out just how much legal right she has in regard to you. If we could only obtain sufficient evidence to prove that she is not a proper person to care for you --"
Polly had suddenly sat up straight, her eyes round with the startling, beautiful thought.
"Do you mean," she broke in excitedly, "that I should n"t have to go back to Aunt Jane?"
The Doctor bowed. "But--" he began.
"Oh, then I can stay with you!" she burst out. "She is n"t proper, she is n"t nice, she is n"t--anything!"
"I know, my dear!" smiled the Doctor. "But such things are hard to prove. I shall keep you, Thistledown, just as long as the law will let me; but the law must be obeyed, and we can"t tell how things will come out."
"Won"t I have to go back to-morrow?" she asked eagerly.
"No, indeed," he a.s.sured her. "Were you dreading that? Don"t be afraid, Thistledown! Keep up a stout heart! You shall stay here for the present anyway." He looked at his watch. "I think I"ll find Jack at home now," he said; and, letting Polly slip to her feet, he placed her in his chair and crossed over to the telephone.
Polly listened breathlessly. She knew that "Jack" must mean only Jack Brewster, a lawyer of the city, who had been a college cla.s.smate of the Doctor"s. The two were close friends.
"That you, Jack?" Polly heard. "Yes. I want to see you professionally, as soon as possible. No," laughing; "but it is important. Can you come up this evening? All right. Good-bye."
"Jack Brewster will do his best for us," the Doctor said, coming back. "He says he will be here at seven or a little after. I think it probably that he will wish to ask you a few questions; but you won"t be afraid of him. He is one of the gentlest men I ever knew--and the strongest," he added.
"I am not afraid of anybody that is your friend," returned Polly.
The Doctor smiled. "A very pretty compliment!" he told her; but she gave his praise scant notice.
"I wonder," she said, "if you would like to see the little book mama wrote about my Anne sisters."
"You what?" he queried.
"My Anne sisters."
Only his twinkling eyes disclosed his amus.e.m.e.nt. "Ancestors you mean, don"t you?" he corrected gently.
"Maybe," doubtfully; "but there are lots of Annes in it that are related to me."
"Where is the book?"
"Right upstairs, in "Under the Lilacs." Don"t you remember, you went down to Aunt Jane"s, and got some of my books when I was able to sit up?"
"I recollect," he nodded.
"Well, that was why I sent for this one "specially, because I knew it had the little book init, and mamma told me always to keep it. So I thought I"d better have it with me."
"Run up and get it, child! It may be--" Polly was gone.
It was indeed a very little book that she put in the Doctor"s hand, simply a few sheets of small note paper sewed together.
"It has about the Illingworth family in one part, and about the May folds in the other," Polly explained; but it is to be doubted if Dr. Dudley heard her, so eagerly was he scanning those lists of names. He clutched at one forlorn thread of hope, and as he read, the feeble thread waxed into a cord of strength.
"Polly--" he began brightly, and then stopped. After all he could not be sure, and he must not raise happy antic.i.p.ations only to see them blasted. His face shaded, and he finished the sentence quite differently from what he had intended. He went on gravely, "Did the Simpsons take charge of everything after your mother went? Was n.o.body else there?"
"Not to stay, except Mrs. Brooks, who lived downstairs. She was n"t there much. I guess Aunt Jane did n"t want her."
"Probably not," remarked the Doctor grimly.
"Is the book any good?" she asked wistfully.
Again he was tempted to tell her, and again he restrained himself.
"I think it will be of use to us," he replied.
"Did you see all the Annes?" she queried. "Are n"t there a lot of them?"
He nodded laughingly. "It is a good name and I have discovered yours among them."
"Did n"t you know it before? It is Marry Anne, after my great-aunt Mary Anne Illingworth. I don"t like it so well as Polly."
"Or Thistledown," he added gaily. His spirits had risen wonderfully since seeing the little book.
The sudden change had its effect on Polly, and when she went upstairs it was with something of her accustomed blitheness.
The afternoon pa.s.sed pleasantly, but after supper the little girl grew unaccountably nervous. She started at every ring of the telephone, and gave queer, absent-minded answers to Leonora"s questions. Finally Miss Lucy, comprehending the situation, proposed a game; but Polly, usually the quickest of the children, allowed the others to eclipse her, while her ears were strained for the expected summons. At last, when the message came, she started downstairs with a fluttering heart, her nerves a-quiver with irrational fear.
At any other time she would have been pleased at the thought of meeting Dr. Dudley"s friend of whom she had heard so many delightful things; but now a vague terror possessed her, lest he, being a part of that awful law,--which to her was only a name of dread,--might send her directly back to Aunt Jane"s.
Polly rarely had a fall, so light and sure of foot was she; but at the top of the flight she stumbled and came near going headlong.
This, turning her thoughts suddenly into another path, seemed somewhat to steady her quaking nerves, and when she reached the office door she was ready to smile a brave, though shy, greeting to the lawyer.
Jack Brewster was in appearance the opposite of Dr. Dudley. The physician was tall and broad-shouldered, with no surplus flesh; yet none would have called him thin. The lawyer was slight almost as a boy, of fair complexion, with an abundance of wavy brown hair, and eyes that had a habit of shining as if their owner had just received a bit of good news. They shone now, as he took one of Polly"s little hands in both his own, and told her how glad he was to make her acquaintance.
"I have n"t any little girl at my house," he went on smilingly, "but there"s a boy who makes things pretty lively. When I started to come away this evening he hugged my leg, and kept saying, "No sir-ee-sir! No sir-ee-sir!" till I finally had to go back and tell him his usual bedtime story."
"How old is he?" asked Polly, her fears quite forgotten.
"He will be two years, the third of next month. Bob," whirling around to the Doctor, "why have n"t you brought Miss Polly out to see us? I"m ashamed of you!"
The physician laughed. "I am not very neighborly, I"ll admit,"
he returned. "Sick people have crowded out the well ones lately.
I know well folks will keep."
"Then the only way for me to get hold of you is to feign a chill or a fever or a broken leg--all right! Thank you for the cue!
And now, Miss Polly," he went on cheerily, "I want you hones opinion of that aunt of yours. Tell me, please, just how she makes you feel."
"Wh-y," hesitated the surprised little girl, "if I should say right out, I"m afraid it would n"t sound very polite or--"
"Don"t think anything about politeness just now, please. Open your heart frankly, and let me see what is there in regard to her.
Don"t be afraid to say exactly what you think. It may help me very much. I want to be able to look at her through your clear eyes."