“My dear, I don’t quite understand.  David Gresham sick?  What David do you mean?” The little lady was waking up.

“Oh, David Collins!  He’s upstairs in the ward.  Colonel Gresham took me to catch the Doctor.”

And Polly related the story of the chase.

“Collins!  Why, it was Jack Collins that Eva Gresham married—­ the Colonel’s niece.”

“Yes; David has told me that Colonel Gresham is his mother’s uncle,” Polly said simply.

“Well, well!  So he went after the Doctor for his grand-nephew—­ and did n’t know it till it was all over with!  What strange things happen in this world!  A pretty good joke on David Gresham!” And the little sad lady actually smiled.  Then she sighed.  “It is too bad!  If they’d only make up!  But they never will.  David is n’t built on the make-up plan—­or Eva either, I fancy.  Eva Gresham was a beautiful girl,” she rambled on, talking more to herself than to her interested listener.  “She lived with her uncle from the time her parents died, when she was a tiny child.  The Colonel idolized her.”

A bit of a break in the soft voice make a momentary pause in the musing.  Then it went on again.  “He had nothing in the world against Jack Collins, except that he was an artist, and poor.  He would n’t have been poor, they say, if he had lived.  His pictures were beginning to sell at good prices.”

Suddenly she came back to Polly.

“So the Colonel is going to take you driving again!  Well, my dear, you need n’t be afraid he’ll forget it; if he said he would, he will.  I declare, you look a good deal as Eva used to when she was your age.  She had just such golden hair and brown eyes.”

“David has blue eyes—­the bluest I ever saw,” observed Polly.

“He probably favors his father,” replied Mrs. Jocelyn.

The Doctor’s entrance put a stop to the talk, and presently Polly said good-bye, and went upstairs.

Not many days afterwards she was sent with a message to Mrs. Jocelyn’s nurse, and the little lady caught sight of her at the door.

“Can’t you come in and stay a while?” she called.

“I don’t know,” Polly hesitated, and she looked questioningly at the nurse.

“Yes, I wish you would,” the young woman nodded.  “I shall have to be away for a quarter of an hour or so, and if you will stay with Mrs. Jocelyn while I’m gone it will be an accommodation to me.”

Polly seated herself smilingly.

“I wonder if you are as happy as you look,” the little white-haired lady began.

“Oh, I’m always happy!” responded Polly; “that is, here,” she added.  “I could n’t help being, it’s so pleasant, and everybody is so good to me.”

The dull gray eyes rested sadly on her.  “Well, be happy while you can be,” their owner said.  “When you get to be old you’ll forget what happiness feels like.”

“Oh, but I shan’t ever grow old!” laughed Polly.  “Dr. Dudley and I are going to stay young!”