“I couldn’t, mother! I couldn’t! I had to come home to talk it over with you and father!” Polly was hurriedly pulling off her gloves, her joyous heedlessness reaching even to her finger-tips. Mrs. Dudley had grown suddenly limp. “Has David--” she began. “No, no; it isn’t anything about David.” Polly’s voice had never sounded like that when she spoke of David. “I don’t much care what it is, then.” Mrs. Dudley sat up straight and drew a little relieved breath. “It seems as if I couldn’t stand his coming back--now. But I don’t see why you didn’t stay as you expected to. Didn’t Kate stay?” “Oh, yes, mother; but I just couldn’t!--I’ll tell you.” “Didn’t you have a good time? Anything gone wrong?” “Yes to the first, and no to the second. Don’t be in a hurry! To begin with, Overlook Mountain is the very loveliest place on earth.” “And yet you left it,” laughed her mother. Polly laughed, too. “Had to!” she said happily. “Oh, the road up the mountain!--I wish you could see it. Through the most beautiful woods! Ferns!--I thought I knew ferns, but I didn’t. Millions of them, almost as tall as you are, and so luxurious--why, the sides of the road look as if they had just been decorated for a wedding!--” “What about a wedding?” came from Dr. Dudley in the doorway. “Evan said you had just come, and I couldn’t understand it. You were so eager to stay the week out.” “I know it. Mother’s had everything bad happening; but it’s all right--or will be if you agree with me--oh, father, you would in one minute if you could see Overlook! Why, when I got there and looked around I felt as if I were right on top of the world--it is beautiful, it is grand! Father, what do you suppose I want to do?” “No telling what rattle-brained scheme is in that head of yours. Out with it! I never could bear suspense.” Polly laughed, a laugh that made her father look at her with joyful eyes. This was his own old Polly, before she had begun to be worried with troubles of David Collins’s making. “Well,” began the girl, holding her excitement in check, “I want to move Paradise Ward up on Overlook for the summer and autumn.” Nobody spoke. They looked at one another, anxiety on Polly’s side, astonishment and half comprehension on the other. “Tell me all about it, little daughter.” Dr. Dudley drew up a chair. So Polly told; of her delight in the spot; of the marvelous beauty of the view; of the wonderful, intoxicating air; of the plan that had suddenly popped into her head when she waked on Sunday morning; of the news that had greeted her at breakfast, just fitting into her scheme, about the brother and sister, owners of a bungalow and a study on the top of Overlook, who had just been left a fortune in Switzerland and wished to sell their property on the mountain; how it seemed the one place for Paradise Ward to get strong in; and of how she could not wait an hour beyond to-day to tell her father of her plan and to beg him to accede to her wish.