"Miss Price knows--I've told her!"--Ilga began abruptly; "but I want
you to know, for they said you cried when you heard I was hurt, and
you thought it was your fault. It wasn't! Not the least bit! It was
all mine! Mrs. Jocelyn's man went into the store, and told us to wait.
I didn't see why we should,--and I don't now, if the ponies were
properly trained. I wanted just to drive around the square, but
Leonora wouldn't; so I began to fool with the whip. I switched it
about, and teased the ponies. Leonora said she'd never touched them
with it, and I told her I didn't see what a whip was good for if it
wasn't used--and I don't! If she'd been quiet, I shouldn't have been
so possessed about it; but she kept saying, 'Don't, Ilga! Please
don't, Ilga!' and I hate being nagged. So finally I gave it a good
smart flirt, and off they went like a shot! Of course, I was scared,
and hardly knew what I did do. Leonora said, real low, 'Keep still!
Don't stir!' I do' know as I should have jumped, if she hadn't told me
not to. But I did, and that's the last I knew till the doctors were
fussing over me."
"But you're going to get well now!" Polly burst out delightedly.
The pale face on the pillow reflected the joy. "Yes," Ilga replied, "I
guess I am, unless they all lie to me. I know Miss Price doesn't,"
with a nodding smile towards the window where the nurse sat reading.
"But I didn't s'pose I ever should one time. I don't b'lieve I should
either, if it hadn't been for Dr. Dudley. Polly, your father is just
splendid!"
Polly's eyes suddenly filled with happy tears. This was something she
had not anticipated--at least, not yet.
The nurse came with a few spoonfuls of nourishment, and the talk
passed to other things; but Polly went away feeling that Ilga's praise
was her apology, and that her enemy had been miraculously changed into
a friend.
Yet there were hours when the old Ilga was at the front, domineering
and impertinent, and Polly would be called upon to exercise all her
tact and patience in order to keep things pleasant during her visits.
But, little by little, as the convalescent gathered strength of body
she also gained in self-control. Miss Price and Polly were her adored
examples of beautiful living, and it was plain that she was honestly
trying to attain to what she admired in them, although the
dissimilarity of eleven and thirty made the task somewhat more
difficult.
Miss Hortensia Price seemed to Polly to be more gentle than in the old
days. Or was it that she now understood her better? She could not
tell; but it was as unending a wonderment as a joy that the dignified
nurse and the untrained, ungoverned girl should have become such close
friends.
On the day set for Ilga to try walking across her room she had planned
a small tea-party for her chosen comrades.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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