“Mrs. Oliver was awake and listening for me; worrying about me, probably; I dare say she thought I ’d been waylaid by bandits,” he muttered discontentedly.  “I might as well live in the Young Women’s Christian Association!  I can’t get mad with an angel, but I did n’t intend being one myself!  Good gracious! why don’t they hire me a nurse and buy me a perambulator!”

But all the rest was perfect; and his chief chums envied him after they had spent an evening with the Olivers.  Polly and he had ceased to quarrel, and were on good, frank, friendly terms.  “She is no end of fun,” he would have told you; “has no nonsensical young-lady airs about her, is always ready for sport, sings all kinds of songs from grave to gay, knows a good joke when you tell one, and keeps a fellow up to the mark as well as a maiden aunt.”

All this was delightful to everybody concerned.  Meanwhile the household affairs were as troublesome as they could well be.  Mrs. Oliver developed more serious symptoms, and Dr. George asked the San Francisco physician to call to see her twice a week at least.  The San Francisco physician thought “a year at Carlsbad, and a year at Nice, would be a good thing;” but, failing these, he ordered copious quantities of expensive drugs, and the reserve fund shrank, though the precious three hundred and twelve dollars was almost intact.

Poor Mrs. Chadwick sent tearful monthly letters, accompanied by checks of fifty to sixty-five dollars.  One of the boarders had died; two had gone away; the season was poor; Ah Foy had returned to China; Mr. Greenwood was difficult about his meals; the roof leaked; provisions were dear; Mrs. Holmes in the next street had decided to take boarders; Eastern people were grumbling at the weather, saying it was not at all as reported in the guide-books; real-estate and rents were very low; she hoped to be able to do better next month; and she was Mrs. Oliver’s “affectionate Clementine Churchill Chadwick.”

Polly had held a consultation with the principal of her school, who had assured her that as she was so well in advance of her class, she could be promoted the next term, if she desired.  Accordingly, she left school in order to be more with her mother, and as she studied with Edgar in the evening, she really lost nothing.

Mrs. Howe remitted four dollars from the monthly rent, in consideration of Spanish lessons given to her two oldest children.  This experiment proved a success, and Polly next accepted an offer to come three times a week to the house of a certain Mrs. Baer to amuse (instructively) the four little Baer cubs, while the mother Baer wrote a “History of the Dress-Reform Movement in English-Speaking Nations.”

For this service Polly was paid ten dollars a month in gold coin, while the amount of spiritual wealth which she amassed could not possibly be estimated in dollars and cents.  The ten dollars was very useful, for it procured the services of a kind, strong woman, who came on these three afternoons of Polly’s absence, put the entire house in order, did the mending, rubbed Mrs. Oliver’s tired back, and brushed her hair until she fell asleep.