LEONORA'S WONDERFUL NEWS
"Polly!"
Dr. Dudley waited at the foot of the short staircase. He had just come
in from an early morning visit to a hospital patient.
"Yes, father," floated down to him, followed by a scurry of light feet
in the corridor overhead.
Directly Polly appeared at the top of the flight, one side of her hair
in soft, smooth curls, the other a mass of fluffy waves.
"Leonora sent word for you to come over 'just as soon as you possibly
can,'" smiled the Doctor. "She has something to tell you."
"I don't see what it can be," replied Polly. "Do you know, father?"
"You wouldn't wish me to rob Leonora of the first telling of her
news," he objected.
"No," she admitted slowly; "but I can't imagine why she's in such a
hurry. I wonder if she is to stay at the hospital longer than she
expected--that isn't it, is it?"
Dr. Dudley shook his head.
"My advice is to make haste with your toilet and run over to the
hospital and find out."
"Yes," Polly agreed, "I will." Yet she stood still, her forehead
puckered over the possible good things that could have happened to her
friend.
Dr. Dudley turned away, and then halted.
"Isn't your mother waiting for you?" he suggested.
"Oh, I forgot!" she cried, and flew back to where Mrs. Dudley sat,
brush and comb in hand.
"How my hair grows!" commented Polly, after discussing the news
awaiting her, and silently concluding that whatever her mother knew
she did not intend to disclose. "It will be a year next week since it
was cut. I shall have mermaid tresses before I know it. Isn't it nice
that I was hurt? Because if I hadn't been I should never have known
you and father. Did you expect to marry him when he took you to ride
on Elsie's birthday?"
"Of course not!" laughed Mrs. Dudley. "You were a roguish little
match-maker!"
"I never thought of that," returned Polly. "I only wanted you to have
a good time."
"I had it," her mother smiled, tying a ribbon to hold the bright
curls. "There!" with a final pluck at the bow; "now run along and hear
Leonora's glad story! I am afraid she will be getting impatient."
As Polly skipped up to the hospital entrance, the door flew open, and
Leonora, smiling rapturously, ran to meet her.
"What is it?" entreated Polly. "I can't wait another minute!"
"Seem's if I couldn't, too! I thought you'd never come! What do you
think, Polly May Dudley! I'm goin' to live with Mrs. Jocelyn!--all the
time!--forever! She's adopted me!"
Polly stared, and then let out her astonishment in a big "O-h!" This
was, indeed, something unguessable. "Isn't that lovely!" she cried in
delight. "I'm so glad!--just as glad as I can be!"
"Of course you are! Everybody is," Leonora responded blissfully. They
went in doors arm in arm, stopping in Dr. Dudley's office, their
tongues more than keeping pace with their steps.
"I shouldn't think your father and mother would want to give you up,"
observed practical Polly.
"I guess they're glad," Leonora replied. "Prob'ly I wouldn't go if
they were my own; but I don't belong to them."
"You don't?"
"Why, no. My mother died when I was three years old. I can only just
remember her. In a little while father married again, and pretty soon
he died--he was awful good to me! I cried when they said he wasn't
goin' to get well. Then my stepmother married Mr. Dinnan. So, you see,
I ain't any relation really, and they're prob'ly glad not to have me
to feed any more. And I guess I'm glad--my! But I can't b'lieve it
yet! Say, I'm goin' to your school, and Mrs. Jocelyn is comin' to take
me out in her carriage this forenoon to buy me some new clothes!"
Polly's radiant face was enough to keep Leonora's tongue lively.
"She's goin' to fix me up a room right next to hers, all white and
pink! And she's goin' to get me a beautiful doll house and some new
dolls--she says I can pick 'em out myself! And--what do you
think!--she said last night she guessed she'd have to get me a pair of
ponies and a little carriage just big enough for you and me, and have
me learn to drive 'em!"
"O-h! won't you be grand!" beamed Polly.
And then, while Leonora chattered on, came to her a picture of that
afternoon--so far away it seemed!--when she had been folded in Mrs.
Jocelyn's arms, to be offered these same pleasures, and which she had
refused for love of Dr. Dudley, although the thought of calling him
father had never then come to her. How glad she was that she had not
mentioned this! She had always had an intuitive feeling that the
concern was Mrs. Jocelyn's, to be kept as her secret, and she had
therefore been silent. Now Leonora need never know that she was
"second choice." Her friend's happy confidences recalled Polly's
strolling thoughts.
"I don't b'lieve you have any idea how perfectly splendid it makes me
feel to think I'm goin' to have that sweet, beautiful Mrs. Jocelyn for
my own mother." The last word was little more than a whisper.
Leonora's dark eyes were luminous with joy.
"Why, of course I know!" responded Polly. "You feel just as I did that
day father told me he was going to marry Miss Lucy,--I mean
mother,--and I was to be their little girl. Don't you remember? I'd
been for a visit to Mrs. Jocelyn's and brought home those presents,
and Mary Pender thought I must have had such a good time because I was
so full of fun."
"I guess I couldn't ever forget!" cried Leonora. "That lovely rose-bud
sash you gave me was the prettiest thing I ever had to wear in all my
life! And was that really the day you first knew about it?"
Polly nodded.
"Queer!" Leonora went on. "There we both went to the hospital, you
hurted so awful bad nobody s'posed you'd get well, and I so lame that
even Dr. Dudley thought I'd never walk straight! And now--my! ain't
it queer? We're adopted by the nicest folks, and I don't limp a mite!
Just see how good I can walk!"
She skipped off gleefully, falling into a slow, regular pace across
the room.
"That's beautiful!" praised Polly. "And it doesn't hurt you now, does
it?"
"Not a bit! Oh, it's so splendid that Dr. Dudley cured me!--why,
there's David! No, don't go!" as Polly sprang up. "It isn't school
time yet."
The girls ran to the door, Leonora clutching her friend's arm, as if
resolved not to let her escape.
"Your mother told me you were here," David began.
"She didn't tell you I was goin' to your school, did she?" laughed
Leonora.
"No! Honest?"
"Yes, honest!" they chorused mischievously.
"There's something up!" David's head wagged knowingly. "What is it?"
He looked from Leonora to Polly, and back again.
Then the delightful news could not be kept a minute longer, but
bubbled forth from Leonora's lips, until the three were soon in a
torrent of merry talk.
David's interest fully satisfied the girls, which is saying much for
it; but the clock ticked steadily on, regardless of adoptions, new
clothes, and ponies. Happily there was a chance look across the room,
which hurried Polly and David away to school and sent Leonora up to
the convalescent ward to make ready for her drive with Mrs. Jocelyn.