"Oh, Miss Nita! Wasn't the ride lovely?" Polly squeezed her friend's arm. "Say, did you know, at the very last minute Miss Sniffen sent over word that Mrs. Bonnyman couldn't go? She had the toothache, and so mother came in her place! Oh, I did wish you were in our car! I wanted to say, 'Isn't that beautiful?' and 'Just look at this!'"

"You could talk to David," laughed Miss Sterling.

"Oh, yes, I did some! But Mrs. Crump was jabbering to him most of the time. Haven't you ever been out here before? Why, I thought you had!--How d' y' do, Doodles!"

The three went up the steps hand in hand.

"Isn't that the loveliest, biggest moon you ever saw?" exclaimed Polly.

While they lingered to look at it a car flashed up the road and turned in at the entrance.

"Somebody going to the Flemings'," remarked Doodles carelessly.

"No, it's coming here!" returned Polly. The lights blazed toward them.

They waited, and a man stepped out.

"Mr. Randolph!" breathed Polly, as he emerged from the shadows.

"I feel somewhat like an intruder," said the president, as he grasped the hand of Doodles. "When Colonel Gresham invited me I told him my coming was impossible. Then things cleared up a little--and here I am!"

A visible stir succeeded Nelson Randolph's entrance. Mrs. Stickney and Colonel Gresham welcomed him most cordially, and Polly, as president of the Hiking Club, greeted him with a characteristic little speech.

Presently the unexpected guest was moving easily among the others, pa.s.sing from group to group with hearty handshakes and happy words, at last coming face to face with Juanita Sterling.

She had watched him nearing her corner, the while politely attending to Miss Leatherland's intermittent chit-cnat and vainly trying to banish from her mind the recent a.s.sertions of Miss Major.

With his first word, however, they fled, and she found herself talking to the president unabashed and unafraid.

"I am glad to have the opportunity of telling you how much I thought of those beautiful roses," she said; "I never saw handsomer ones."

"It is good to know you enjoyed them. I hoped to have the pleasure of taking you out to Adalina Park in the height of the rose season." Was there an inquiry in the eyes that bent to hers?

She felt the flush sweep up her cheeks. "I should have been delighted to go," she replied. Hurriedly she tried to think of something to add to the brief sentence, but her mind was confused, and the seconds slipped by.

"I was sorry it happened so," he went on; "but we will try it again. Adalina Park is in its full glory now, and there are pretty drives outside of the parks." He smiled whimsically.

Then came the question that put her in doubt whether she should tell him the truth or not--"When should I be most likely to find you disengaged?"

"Almost any time," she answered, having decided that she would leave him to discover why she had not responded to his invitation.

"Work is never pressing at the Home."

"Isn't it?" A puzzled look flickered in his eyes--or was it only her fancy?

A little flutter about the piano told that somebody was to play or sing. David took the seat and began a prelude. Then he sang in a clear, fresh voice:--

"Red as the wine of forgotten ages, Yellow as gold of the sunbeams spun, Pink as the gowns of Aurora's pages, White as the robe of a sinless one, Sweeter than Araby's winds that blow-- Roses, roses, I love ye so!"

"Who is that boy?" Nelson Randolph asked. "Some relation of Colonel Gresham's, isn't he?"

"His grandnephew, David Collins."

"He has a fine voice."

"Excellent. Polly Dudley has a sweet voice, too. I hope she will sing before the evening is over. And Doodles is wonderful! Have you ever heard him?"

"No. He told me he was in the choir at St. Bartholomew's."

"There he comes! Oh, Polly is to play for him!"

A very sympathetic accompanist was Polly. Juanita Sterling listened in surprise and wonder. How could such a child do so well!

"Young Davie was the brawest lad In a' the Lairnie Glen, An' Jennie was the bonniest la.s.s That e'er stole hearts o' men; But Davie was a cotter's lad, A lad o' low degree, An' Jennie, bonnie, sonsie la.s.s, A highborn la.s.s was she."

Applause burst upon the hush that hung on the last note. It was insistent--it would not be denied. Doodles must sing again.

"He is a marvel!" Nelson Randolph spoke it softly, as the young singer returned to the piano.

He gave the second verse of the song, which before he had omitted, and then sang the dainty little love song,--

"Dusk, and the shadows falling O'er land and sea; Somewhere a voice is calling, Calling for me!"

Yet even that did not satisfy his audience. So he returned once more and gave in an irresistibly rollicking way a song in Yankee dialect, the refrain to which,--

"Oh, my boy Jonathan is jest as good as gold!

An' he always fills the wood-box 'ithout bein' told!"--

tagging as it did the various topics of the old farmer's discourse upon his son, never failed to bring laughter from his hearers.

At the end the applause was long and urgent; but Doodles had run away, and would not come back.

Polly slipped up to Miss Sterling.

"Will you play for us now?--please, Miss Nita!" seeing a refusal in the eyes that met her own.

"I am not in practice. I should hate to break down before all these people," she smiled.

"There isn't one mite of danger!" Polly a.s.serted confidently. "Do come, Miss Nita! Mr. Randolph, I wish you'd coax her to come! She can play magnificently!"

"Polly!"

"She can!" Polly addressed the president.

"I don't doubt it," Nelson Randolph declared, "and I should be delighted to hear her."

"You wouldn't be delighted at all," Miss Sterling laughed. "You would want to stop me long before I had finished one page. My fingers would be lost in no time."

He dissented with courtliness, and Polly wheedled until Doodles and Blue came to add their urging to hers; but in the end they had to let Miss Sterling have her way, which was to remain outside of the entertaining circle.