Polly in New York

Then the door was opened, and sweet fragrance greeted the girls. There in a corner of the stateroom stood a dozen American Beauty roses, each with a stem almost four feet long. And about the stems a golden cord was tied, and upon this cord hung a card.

The three girls stood admiring the great crimson beauties and then Ruth said: “See who they are from – and who for?”

“Why, they’re Polly’s, of course. The same ‘old valentine’ sent them!” laughed Eleanor.

Polly’s fingers trembled as she bent forward and read what was written on the card: “Your Valentine that was, and is, and always will be, in this world, and in the next, and forever, Tom.”

“Oh, no! No! No! No! I won’t have you so, Tom!” cried Polly, throwing herself in the chair and covering her face with her hands. Eleanor and Ruth stood perfectly still, not knowing what to do or say.

Then Polly lifted her face. She was trying to smile. “Dear old Tom only did that to tease me. Isn’t he an old plague?”

“I should say he was!” exclaimed Ruth, innocently.

Eleanor with the worldly wisdom learned from her mother, added guilefully: “He sure is. But you tricked him, Polly.”

“How?” eagerly inquired Polly.

“He was the only one in the party who didn’t get a kiss from you!” laughed Eleanor.

“That’s so!” admitted Polly, but Eleanor was not sure whether her friend was sorry or satisfied at the result.

Then, as the days passed, Eleanor noticed that Polly never mentioned the roses again, but they were kept as fresh as possible, and weeks later, Eleanor found one of them carefully pressed with the card still tied to it.

But this discovery, and all that happened during that Summer in Europe, while visiting famous places and viewing rare objects of antiquity, are told in another volume called “Polly and Eleanor Abroad.”

THE END