“What if the tenant should give up the house as soon as we are fairly settled in San Francisco?” asked Polly, with an absolutely new gleam of caution and business in her eye.

“Brava!  Why do I attempt to advise such a capable little person?  Well, in the first place, there are such things as leases; and in the second place, if your tenant should move out, the agent must find you another in short order, and you will live, meanwhile, on the reserve fund.  But, joking aside, there is very little risk.  It is going to be a great winter for Santa Barbara, and your house is attractive, convenient, and excellently located.  If we can get your affairs into such shape that your mother will not be anxious, I hope, and think, that the entire change and rest, together with the bracing air, will work wonders.  I shall give you a letter to a physician, a friend of mine, and fortunately I shall come up once a month during the winter to see an old patient who insists on retaining me just from force of habit.”

“And in another year, Dr. George, I shall be ready to take care of mamma myself; and then—­

  “She shall sit on a cushion, and sew a fine seam,
  And feast upon strawberries, sugar, and cream.”

“Assuredly, my Polly, assuredly.”  The doctor was pacing up and down the office now, hands in pockets, eyes on floor.  “The world is your oyster; open it, my dear,—­open it.  By the way,” with a sharp turn, “with what do you propose to open it?”

“I don’t know yet, but not with boarders, Dr. George.”

“Tut, tut, child; must n’t despise small things!”

“Such as Mr. Greenwood,” said Polly irrepressibly, “weight two hundred and ninety pounds; and Mrs. Darling, height six feet one inch; no, I ’ll try not to despise small things, thank you!”

“Well, if there ’s a vocation, it will ‘call,’ you know, Polly.  I ’d rather like you for an assistant, to drive my horse and amuse my convalescents.  Bless my soul! you ’d make a superb nurse, except”—­

“Except what, sir?”

“You ’re not in equilibrium yet, my child; you are either up or down, generally up.  You bounce, so to speak.  Now, a nurse must n’t bounce; she must be poised, as it were, or suspended, betwixt and between, like Mahomet’s coffin.  But thank Heaven for your high spirits, all the same!  They will tide you over many a hard place, and the years will bring the ‘inevitable yoke’ soon enough, Polly,” and here Dr. George passed behind the girl’s chair and put his two kind hands on her shoulders.  “Polly, can you be really a woman?  Can you put the little-girl days bravely behind you?”

“I can, Dr. George.”  This in a very trembling voice.

“Can you settle all these details for your mother, and assume responsibilities?  Can you take her away, as if she were the child and you the mother, all at once?”

“I can!” This more firmly.

“Can you deny yourself for her, as she has for you?  Can you keep cheerful and sunny?  Can you hide your fears, if there should be cause for any, in your own heart?  Can you be calm and strong, if”—­