"Oh, no! I--I--"

"Well, you'd better go right back. It is too late to be running
around for play. The halls must be kept quiet."

"Yes, Miss Bemont," responded Polly meekly, and turned to see
Dr. Dudley at the head of the flight.

There was nothing to do but to go forward, which she did, with
downcast eyes and a throbbing heart.

"Oh, here you are!" exclaimed the physician. "I've been looking
for you. I thought you would like to take a ride up to
Warringford. I shall be back before your bedtime, and Miss Lucy
says--why, Thistledown! What is the matter?"

The revulsion had been to great, and, leaning against the Doctor's
arm, Polly was softly sobbing.

The physician sat down on the stairs, and drew the fair little
head to his shoulder. In a minute he knew it all,--the sudden
fear that had assailed her, the creeping flight across the ward,
and the baffled attempt at hiding. As he listened, his eyes grew
grave and tender, for in the broken little confession he
comprehended the child's unspoken abhorrence of the life she had
left behind when she had come to the hospital five months before.

"I would n't worry about going back to Aunt Jane's," he said
brightly. "You may be sure I shan't let her monopolize my little