"Oh, dear! I don't want her!" fretted the little driver. "I wish she hadn't been out there. I wish we'd gone some other way. Yes, go ahead, if you want to!" she yielded, seeing Polly's wistful eyes. "I'll try to be good to her." The carriage stopped in front of the big granite house, and the exchange was soon made. Ilga was only too ready for a drive behind the ponies which were the envy of every girl who saw them. Polly waved them a gay good-bye, and turned towards home. "I believe I'll go up to Patricia's," she said to herself. "Mother won't expect me back for an hour or two, and Patricia wanted me to see her new dresses. It'll be a good time." Thus thinking, she took the street that led to The Trowbridge, and was presently admiring Patricia's pretty frocks. Time passed quickly, and it was nearly ten o'clock when she finally started for home. As she rounded the corner below Lady Gay Cottage, she saw her father's automobile in front, and then the Doctor himself coming down the walk on a run. "Oh, maybe I can go with him!" she thought, and sprang ahead. "Father! father!" she called. Dr. Dudley turned, and came swiftly towards her. He caught her in his arms,--"Polly!" his voice breaking as she had never heard it before. "You aren't hurt at all?" Incredulity was in his tone. "Hurt? Why, no! How should I be?" He left her, leaping up the steps, and throwing wide the door. She heard him call:-- "Lucy! she is here!--safe!" Polly hurried after, to be clasped tightly in her mother's arms with excited expressions of thankfulness. "What is it?" she pleaded. "I don't see what it all means!" "We heard that the ponies ran away," the Doctor explained, "and that one of you was hurt--badly. Somebody thought it was not Leonora, and, of course--" "Oh, Ilga!" broke in Polly. And she told of how the exchange had been made. Dr. Dudley hastened away, to learn the truth of the matter, while Polly and her mother tried to settle into something like calmness. By chance callers and over the wire came snatches of facts concerning the accident. Nobody seemed to know what had startled the ponies, but Leonora had pluckily held to the reins until a hill was reached, thereby averting injury to herself. Ilga, becoming frightened, had jumped from the carriage, with serious results. It had occurred while Philip had gone into a shop for some purchase, leaving his own horse and the little team at the curb. When he came out the ponies were dashing across the railway tracks ahead of a coming train, and he was obliged to wait behind the gates until the small carriage was out of sight. It was not until the Doctor returned that the nature of Ilga's injuries were known. "Dr. Palmer and Dr. Houston are attending her," the physician said. "I have heard nothing direct from them, but it is rumored that the girl's back is broken."