Polly and the Princess Part 39

Father took it and read and read and read. Finally he looked up and asked, 'Did you say a lady at the Home wrote these?' Then he brought his head down, as he does when he is pleased, and exclaimed, 'They ought to be proud of her!'--just what I said, you know!"

"I am so glad he likes them!" Miss Twining's delicate face grew pink with pleasure.

"Oh, he does! He kept reading--it seemed as if he couldn't lay it down--till somebody called him. And when he got up he said, 'This is poetry--I should like to see the woman who can write like that.

She must be worth knowing.'"

"Oh, Polly!" Miss Twining's eyes overflowed with happy tears.

"That is the best compliment I ever had in my life--and from such a man as your father!"

"Mother fairly raves over the poems," went on Polly. "She says she is coming over here next visiting day to get acquainted with you."

"I hope she will come," smiled the little woman. "I have always wished I could know her, she looks so sweet as she sits there beside you in church."

"She is sweet!" nodded Polly. "n.o.body knows how sweet till they've lived with her."

Every day now Miss Twining had a visit from Polly, and every day she had to tell her that she had not heard from Mr. Parcell.

"He is only waiting till he has read the book through," Polly a.s.sured the disappointed author. "Or maybe he is coming to tell you how much he thinks of it--you'd like that better, shouldn't you?"

"I don't mind which way, if only he doesn't scorn it and says something," was the half-smiling reply.

But as the days and weeks pa.s.sed, and brought no word from the recipient of "Hilltop Days," Polly hardly knew how to comfort the sorrowful giver. She began to wish that she had not urged Miss Twining to send the book to Mr. Parcell. She even suggested making some errand to the house and asking, quite casually, of course, how they liked Miss Twining's book, but the little woman so promptly declared Polly should do nothing of the sort that the plan was given up at once.

At the cordial invitation of Dr. Dudley and his wife, Miss Sterling and Miss Twining spent a delightful afternoon and evening at the Doctor's home.

"I feel as if I had been in heaven!" Miss Twining told Polly the next day. "It carried me back to my girlhood, when I was so happy with my mother and father and my sisters and brother. My sisters were always stronger than I, and Walter was a regular athlete; but they went early, and I lived on." She sighed smilingly into Polly's sympathetic face. "It is queer the way things go. They were so needed! So was I," she added, "as long as mother and father lived; but now I don't amount to anything!"

"Oh, you do!" cried Polly. "You write beautiful poetry, and you don't know how much good your poems are doing people."

"I can't write any more--yes, I can!" she amended. "Miss Sniffen didn't tell me not to write. I needn't let them pay me any money--I might order it sent to the missionaries! Why,"--as the thought flashed upon her,--"I could have them send the money anywhere, couldn't I? To anybody I knew of that needed it! Oh, I will! I'll begin this very day! Polly Dudley, you've made life worth living for me!"

"I haven't done anything!" laughed Polly. "That is your thought, and it is a lovely, unselfish one!"

"It would never have come to me but for what you said! How can I ever thank you!"

"Nothing to thank me for!" insisted Polly. "But if you will have it so, I'll say you may thank me by letting me read your poems."

"Oh, I'd love to! And then you can tell me whether they are right or not!"

"As if I'd know!" chuckled Polly. "But I'll run away now and let you go to writing--I do know enough for that!" She took Miss Twining's face between her soft palms and gave her four kisses, on cheeks and temples. "Those are for good luck, like a four-leaf clover," she said gayly. "Good-bye, dear!"

CHAPTER XXV

ALICE TWINING, MARTYR

Early the next morning Polly ran over to the Home. She was eager to hear how Miss Twining's new plan had worked. As she neared her friend's door, however, a murmur of voices came from within, and she kept on to the third floor, making her way straight to the corner room.

Juanita Sterling met her with a troubled little smile.

"What is it?" she asked quickly, looking beyond to Mrs. Albright and Miss Crilly. Their excited faces emphasized the other's doubtful greeting.

"Nothing," spoke up Mrs. Albright,--"only Miss Twining has had a time with Miss Sniffen."

"What about?"

"Money," answered Miss Sterling wearily. "It is lucky for the rest of us that we don't have any."

"That same money?" persisted Polly.

"No, dear." Mrs. Albright drew up a chair beside her--"Come sit down, and I'll tell you about it. I've been telling them, and we have got a little wrought up over it, that's all."

"I should think anybody'd get wrought up!" put in Miss Crilly. "I guess it will be the death of poor Miss Twining!"

"No, no, it won't! See how you're scaring Polly!"

The girl glanced beseechingly from one to another.

"What is it? You're keeping something back!"

Mrs. Albright patted the chair invitingly. "Come here! I'm going to tell you every word I know."

"She was so happy yesterday!" mourned Polly.

"She will be again, dear."

"Looks like it!" sniffed Miss Crilly. "I believe in saying the truth right out!"

"Katharine Crilly, you just mind your own business!" laughed Mrs.

Albright.

"To begin at the beginning,"--she turned toward Polly,--"I was knocking at Miss Twining's door yesterday afternoon when she came up the stairs. So I went in with her and stayed a little while.

She was in fine spirits. She had been to see an old friend of hers, a member of the Board, and this lady had given her the same amount of money that Miss Sniffen had--"

"Stolen!" burst out Miss Crilly.

"I'm telling this story!" announced Mrs. Albright placidly. "But Miss Twining said," she resumed, "that she had promised not to divulge the name of the lady to any one. So I don't know who it is. On her way home she had bought a book that she had wanted for a long time. I told her she'd have to look out or she would get caught reading it; but she said they always knocked before coming in, and she should have time to put it on the under shelf of her table--where the cover partly hides it. I said, 'Well, you look out now!' and she laughed and promised she would.

"In the evening, as I was sitting alone, I heard talking, and I went to my door to listen. I thought I knew the voice, and when I opened the door a crack I was sure whose room it came from. 'Oh, I'm afraid she's caught her again!' I said to myself, and I waited till I heard somebody go softly away and down the stairs. Then I stole over to Miss Twining.

"It was just as I had feared! She was reading all so nice, when without a mite of warning in sailed Miss Sniffen! Of course she asked her where she got the book, and she said it was given to her.

But she wouldn't tell the woman's name. Miss Sniffen couldn't get it out of her! She talked and threatened; but Miss Twining wouldn't give in. Finally she vowed she'd have it out of her if she had to flog it out! I could see that Miss Twining was all wrought up and as nervous as could be--as who wouldn't have been!"

"Oh!" gasped Polly. "It's just awful! Did she whip her?"

Mrs. Albright shook her head and went on.