Page:Pollyanna Grows Up.djvu/320

292 pulled herself up in bed. "You don't mean to say there's anything serious between you and—Jimmy Bean!"

Pollyanna fell back in dismay.

"Why, auntie, I thought you liked Jimmy!"

"So I do—in his place. But that place isn't the husband of my niece."

"Aunt Polly!"

"Come, come, child, don't look so shocked. This is all sheer nonsense, and I'm glad I've been able to stop it before it's gone any further."

"But, Aunt Polly, it has gone further," quavered Pollyanna. "Why, I—I already have learned to lo——c-care for him—dearly."

"Then you'll have to unlearn it, Pollyanna, for never, never will I give my consent to your marrying Jimmy Bean."

"But—w-why, auntie?"

"First and foremost because we know nothing about him."

"Why, Aunt Polly, we've always known him, ever since I was a little girl!"

"Yes, and what was he? A rough little runaway urchin from an Orphans' Home! We know nothing whatever about his people, and his pedigree."

"But I'm not marrying his p-people and his p-pedigree!"

With an impatient groan Aunt Polly fell back on her pillow.

"Pollyanna, you're making me positively ill. My heart is going like a trip hammer. I sha'n't sleep a