Her brows drew into a troubled frown.
"There, that's what I was going to ask you, Nancy," she sighed.

"Do you think Aunt Polly likes to have me here?
Would she mind--if if I wasn't here any more ?" Nancy threw a quick look into the little girl's absorbed face.

She had expected to be asked this question long before, and she had dreaded it.

She had wondered how she should answer it--how she could answer it honestly without cruelly hurting the questioner.

But now, NOW, in the face of the new suspicions that had become convictions by the afternoon's umbrella-sending--Nancy only welcomed the question with open arms.