“No, I can’t!  It’s the only way to make sure of you!  Some other fellow will get ahead of me!”

“No other fellow has yet, David.”  Polly’s voice was sweet and serious.

“Do you mean that,” he asked, “honestly?”

“Of course.  You know I have always liked you better than any other boy!”

“You like me, but you love Doodles,” he mused.

Polly laughed softly.  “Oh, dear!” she sighed, “will nothing satisfy you?  Well, then,”—­she was blushing almost to tears,—­“I love you, David!  I—­I think it’s mean for you to make me say it!—­I—­love you better than any other boy I ever saw!” She flung the last words at him with a show of vexation that David could not withstand.

He grinned.

“And now—­you laugh at me!” She sprang up and started past him; but he caught her in his arms.

“Polly!  Polly!  Dear Polly!” he said tenderly.  “Forgive me!  I am a pig!  But to tell me I was mean and that you loved me—­all in the same breath!  Now say I’m contemptible—­or anything!  I’ll agree to it!”

“Well, you ought to—­you are!” she half sobbed, half laughed.  Her face was hidden on his shoulder.

Suddenly she threw up her head and started back.  “Let me go!” she whispered.  “It is ridiculous to stand here like this.”  She pulled away from him and retreated to her chair.

“I don’t see why we can’t be engaged,” said David.  “Promise that you’ll marry me, Polly!”

“Oh!” she cried, “I thirteen, and you just fifteen!  What a pair of ninnies we should be!  David, if you want to keep me, you must let me go free!  I shall be sixteen when I’m through high school, and there’ll be four years of college.  Then—­perhaps—!  Time enough for that sort of thing after we’re twenty!”

David looked at her with smiling eyes, yet he said, “I’m afraid I shan’t feel very sure of you.”

“You’re a funny David!” laughed Polly.  “I say, let’s forget all this, and just be a boy and girl having a good time!”

“Forget that we love each other, Polly?”

“No, no! but take that for granted, and let it drop!”

“I guess you’ll have to teach me how,” David laughed.

“All right!  Come sing me that song I saw you buying at the music store the other day!”

When David left the house, he stopped on the threshold to finish what he was saying.  Then, suddenly, he caught Polly’s hands, pressed a kiss squarely on her lips, and sped away.

“David Collins!” she cried.

But David was already down the steps.  He looked back with a radiant bow.

CHAPTER XXVIII

A VISIT WITH MRS. TENNEY

The letter-carrier came early, and Polly ran over to the Home in hopes to be first at the pile of mail on the hall table.  She wanted to carry Mr. Parcell’s note upstairs herself.

There it was, right on top, “Miss Alice Ely Twining”!  Polly caught up the envelope with a glad breath.  Then she went hastily through the rest and found a letter for Miss Sterling and one for Miss Crilly.