Part 80

"Oh, Cathie!" Polly rushed out to meet the girl that Johnson was just ushering in. "I am so glad you've come!"

A pleased look swept over the girl's face, but she didn't say anything.

"Now come right upstairs; never mind the bag, Johnson will bring that for you."

"I will take it up, Miss," said Johnson, securing it.

"Mamsie is waiting to see you," cried Polly, as they ran over the stairs, Cathie trying to still the excited beating of her heart at the thought that she was really to visit Polly Pepper for three whole days! "Oh, Mamsie, here she is!"

"I am glad to see you, Cathie," said Mrs. Fisher heartily, taking her cold hand. "Now, you are to have the room right next to Polly's."

"Yes, the same one that Alexia always has when she stays here," said Polly. "See, Cathie," bearing her off down the hall. "Oh, it is so good to get you here," she cried happily. "Well, here we are!"

"You can't think," began Cathie brokenly; then she turned away to the window--"it's so good of you to ask me, Polly Pepper!"

"It's so good of you to come," said Polly merrily, and running over to her. "There, Johnson has brought your bag. Aren't you going to unpack it, Cathie?--that is, I mean"--with a little laugh--"after you've got your hat and jacket off. And then, when your things are all settled, we can go downstairs, and do whatever you like. Perhaps we'll go in the greenhouse."

"Oh, Polly!" exclaimed Cathie, quite forgetting herself, and turning around.

"And can't I help you unpack?" asked Polly, longing to do something.

"No," said Cathie, remembering her plain clothes and lack of the pretty trifles that girls delight in; then seeing Polly's face, she thought better of it. "Yes, you may," she said suddenly.

So Polly unstrapped the bag, and drew out the clothes, all packed very neatly. "Why, Cathie Harrison!" she exclaimed suddenly.

"What?" asked Cathie, hanging up her jacket in the closet, and putting her head around the door.

"Oh, what a lovely thing!" Polly held up a little carved box of Chinese workmanship.

"Isn't it?" cried Cathie, well pleased that she had anything worthy of notice. "My uncle brought that from China to my mother when she was a little girl, and she gave it to me."

"Well, it's too lovely for anything," declared Polly, running to put it on the toilet table. "I do think Chinese carvings are so pretty!"

"Do you?" cried Cathie, well pleased. "My mother has some really fine ones, I'll show you sometime, if you'd like to see them, Polly."

"Indeed, I should," said Polly warmly. So Cathie, delighted that she really had something that could interest Polly Pepper, hurried through her preparations; and then the two went downstairs arm in arm, and out to the greenhouse.

"Polly Pepper!" exclaimed Cathie on the threshold, "I don't think I should ever envy you living in that perfectly beautiful house, because it just scares me to set foot in it."

"Well, it needn't," said Polly, with a little laugh. "You must just forget all about its being big and splendid."

"But I can't," said Cathie, surprised at herself for being so communicative, "because, you see, I live in such a little, tucked-up place."

"Well, so did I," said Polly, with a bob of her brown head, "before we came here to Grandpapa's; but oh, you can't think how beautiful it was in the little brown house--you can't begin to think, Cathie Harrison!"

"I know," said Cathie, who had heard the story before. "I wish you'd tell it all to me now, Polly."

"I couldn't tell it all, if I talked a year, I guess," said Polly merrily, "and there is Turner waiting to speak to me. Come on, Cathie." And she ran down the long aisle between the fragrant blossoms.

But Cathie stopped to look and exclaim so often to herself that she made slow progress.

"Shall I make her up a bunch, Miss Mary?" asked old Turner, touching his cap respectfully, and looking at the visitor.

"Oh, if you please," cried Polly radiantly; "and do put some heliotrope in, for Cathie is so fond of that. And please let her have a bunch every morning when I have mine, Turner, for she is to stay three days."