They waited, the one all a-quiver with anticipation, the other gazing, not down the street, but at the child, her round, usually placid face now lengthened by lines of tenderness and pain. The automobile did not come back. Finally Aunt Sophie crept quietly away to the kitchen, where she could not see the little white face by the window. The child was still scanning the road hopefully when, just before six o’clock, the big car returned to the garage, empty except for the liveried driver. Aunt Sophie entered the room in her preparations for tea. “She didn’t come,” needlessly announced the small voice. “I guess she thought she’d wait till to-morrow.” The little woman sighed softly. “I think she’ll come to-morrow,” went on the voice in cheerful tone. “Maybe,” returned Aunt Sophie. CHAPTER VII GLADYS GUINEVERE The sun was radiant; the sky wore a most alluring blue dress; the breeze was sending up little velvety waves and ripples from the south;--Polly wanted Outdoors. As she gazed from the open window she grew eager. Her mother happened in and proposed to stay awhile and give Polly a chance. The girl looked around the ward, and considered. There was Timmy--Jozy--She hesitated at Clementina and finally shook her head with a sad little frown. Her eyes passed to Grissel, and brightened--Timmy and Jozy and Grissel. That was enough. She glanced across at her mother who was giving Little Duke a drink. “Is father away?” she asked. Learning that he was in the hospital, she went in search of him. “Would Timmy and Grissel and Jozy be any worse for a little ride?” she questioned, her anxious eyes on her father’s face. In a moment she was running up the stairs, stopping only for a word with an orderly. When she entered Paradise Ward her face was as bright as if she had just been made heir to a fortune. For the next ten minutes she and her mother were busy bringing out coats and hats and putting the three fortunate little patients into their wraps. “Are we going to sit on the veranda now?” queried Jozy. But Mrs. Dudley only smiled mysteriously. It would never do to tell too much to the part of the ward that must stay at home--there might be tears. But, as two orderlies carried the lucky ones out through the corridor and downstairs, those who were left behind knew that something unusual was afoot. If Clementina and the rest could have looked round the corner of the building they would have seen the three packed snugly into the Doctor’s big, easy car, to the music of gurgling laughter and silver-toned tongues. Straight to the blossoming fields and piney air they were borne, and the children chattered and giggled as only children can, while Polly drew in deep draughts of the freshness of mountain and wood, and wondered how the dwellers in city prisons ever lived through the summer at all.