"Cologne, then."
"No, I hate it."
"He doesn't want it bathed, Phronsie dear," said Polly. "Boys like to
get hurt, you know. 'Tisn't manly to be fixed up."
Phronsie gave a sigh, which so went to Dick's heart, that he said, "All
right, bring on some water if you want to. But don't get any brown
paper; I had enough of that when I was a boy."
And at the end of that exciting day, the secret came out, after all, in
rather a tame fashion. Dr. Fisher and Jasper met Polly in an angle of
the hall, as she was running upstairs after dinner for her schoolbooks.
"Polly," asked the little doctor, putting both hands on her shoulders,
and looking into the brown eyes, "should you be willing to go abroad
with your mother and Phronsie, Mr. King and Jasper?"
"Oh!" Polly gasped. "But you?" came in a later breath, "we couldn't
leave you," she cried loyally.
"Well, I suppose I should go along too," said the little doctor,
enjoying her face.
"Why, Jasper Elyot King!" cried Polly, slipping out from under the
doctor's palms, and seizing the two hands extended, she began to spin
around as in the olden days, "did you ever, ever hear of anything so
perfectly magnificent! But Ben and Joel and Davie!" and she paused on
the edge of another pirouette.
Dr. Fisher made haste to answer, "Polly, Mrs. Whitney will take care of
them." And Jasper led her off into the dance again.
"How can we ever leave the boys! Oh! I don't see," cried Polly, a bit
reproachfully, her hair blown over her rosy cheeks. As they danced
lightly down the long hall, Dr. Fisher leaned against a pillar, and
watched them.
"Have to," said Jasper, guiding his partner deftly in the intricacies
of the chairs and statuary. "That's a good spin, Polly," he said, as
they brought up by the little doctor's side.
"Lovely!" said Polly, pushing back her locks from the sparkling eyes.
"I'm almost tempted to dance myself," said Dr. Fisher. "If I wasn't
such an old fellow, I'd try; that is, if anybody asked me."
"I will," said Polly, laughing. "Come, Papa Fisher," holding out her
hand, "do give me the honor."
"All right," said Dr. Fisher bravely. So Jasper took the deserted post
by the pillar, and whistled a Strauss waltz. Thereupon a most
extraordinary hopping up and down the hall was commenced, the two
figures bobbing like a pair of corks on a quivering water-surface.
The doors opened, and several faces appeared, amongst the number Mrs.
Fisher's.
"I couldn't help it," said the little doctor, coming up red and
animated, and wiping his forehead. His spectacles had fallen off long
since, and he had let them go. "It looked so nice to see Jasper and
Polly, I thought I'd try it. I didn't suppose I'd get on so well; I
really believe I can dance."
"Humph!" laughed Mr. King, "it looks like it. Just see Polly."
"Oh, Papa Fisher!" cried Polly with a merry peal in which Jasper,
unpuckering his lips from the Strauss effort, had joined, "we must have
looked"--Here she went off again.
"Yes," said Jasper, "you did. That's just it, Polly, you did. Lucky you
two caperers didn't break anything."
"Well, if you've got through laughing," observed Dr. Fisher, "I'll
remark that the secret is out."
"Do you like it, Polly?" asked Mr. King, holding out his hand. "Say, my
girl?" And then before she could answer, he went on, "You see, we can't
do anything without a doctor on our travels. Now Providence has given
us one, though rather an obstinate specimen," he pointed to Father
Fisher. "And he wants to see the hospitals, and you want to study a bit
of music, and your mother wants rest, and Jasper and Phronsie and I
want fun, so we're going, that's all."
"When?" demanded Polly breathlessly.
"In a month."