Page:Pollyanna Grows Up.djvu/337

Rh  meaning in his eyes. "And I thought after she read what I said, that she'd let Pollyanna come. It seems she did, for—here she is."

And there she was in the doorway, blushing, starry-eyed, yet withal just a bit shy and questioning.

"Pollyanna, dearest!" It was Jimmy who sprang forward to meet her, and who, without one minute's hesitation, took her in his arms and kissed her.

"Oh, Jimmy, before all these people!" breathed Pollyanna in embarrassed protest.

"Pooh! I should have kissed you then, Pollyanna, if you'd been straight in the middle of—of Washington Street itself," vowed Jimmy. "For that matter, look at—'all these people' and see for yourself if you need to worry about them."

And Pollyanna looked; and she saw:

Over by one window, backs carefully turned, Jamie and Sadie Dean; over by another window, backs also carefully turned, Mrs. Carew and John Pendleton.

Pollyanna smiled—so adorably that Jimmy kissed her again.

"Oh, Jimmy, isn't it all beautiful and wonderful?" she murmured softly. "And Aunt Polly—she knows everything now; and it's all right. I think it would have been all right, anyway. She was beginning to feel so bad—for me. Now she's so glad. And I am, too. Why, Jimmy, I'm glad, glad, for—everything, now!"

Jimmy caught his breath with a joy that hurt.

"God grant, little girl, that always it may be so—