“She won’t let me!” breathed the frightened woman.

“Oh, I guess she won’t mind!” returned Polly easily.  “That’s what rails are made for—­to cling to.”

“What’s the matter now!” broke in a cutting voice.

“Why, Miss Lily fell, and I’m trying to make her come up close to the rail, so she can get a good, firm hold; but she’s afraid of scratching the stairs.”

“Of course it will scratch—­to go tramping over that polished wood!  She’s to step on the carpet, as I told her!  You’re always interfering, Polly Dudley!”

“Miss Sniffen, I didn’t mean to interfere; but Miss Lily can’t see as well as you can, and—­”

“She can see well enough!  Her eyesight is good.  There is no need of her falling.”

“But she can’t get hold of the rail away off in the middle!”

“Certainly she can reach it!  Don’t stand there talking nonsense!”

Miss Lily turned and hastened up the long flight.  Polly watched her for a moment and then walked slowly down the stairs.

The superintendent waited at the foot, her face flushed and stern.

“You have made trouble enough round here,” she said bitingly.  “Now I think we’ll stop it!”

“Why, Miss Sniffen, what have I done?”

“You’re putting foolish notions into the heads of these old women—­petting and pampering them in the way you do!  To organize a walking-club for them, when they’ve got one foot in the grave—­it’s absurd!”

“Oh, they’re not old—­all of them!” broke in Polly.  “Miss Nita isn’t old!—­or Miss Crilly!—­or—­”

“You need not enumerate!  I know how old they are, and I know how old they say they are!  To think of your coaxing them into such disgraceful escapades as you have!  Those gray-haired women dancing out in a pasture lot!  Oh, you needn’t look so surprised!  I know what you’re up to, if I do stay home here!  You were saucy on that occasion, and bold, too!  Calling to passing automobilists to come and dance with you!  It was scandalous!”

“Why, Miss Sniffen,”—­Polly’s tone was gently explanatory,—­“you can’t have heard it straight!  We didn’t do a single thing out of the way!  And I didn’t call anybody!  Mr. Randolph and Miss Puddicombe drove along, and Mr. Randolph said it looked too tempting, and wanted to know if they couldn’t come and dance.  That was all!”

The superintendent primmed her lips.  “We won’t discuss it any further.  All I wish to say is that hereafter you may confine your calls to Wednesday afternoon, when we receive visitors.”

Polly stood for an instant, dumb with surprise and dismay; then she took a step forward.

“Good-bye, Miss Sniffen!” she said in a low, tense voice, and passed swiftly out into the sunshine.

She walked along, regardless of anything besides her own tumultuous thoughts, until, as she was turning in at her home entrance, she heard the old familiar call, “Pollee, Pollee, Pollee-e-e!”