time. It 's quite impossible to keep steady any longer. Now what will I do?' Polly sprinkled crumbs to the doves, who came daily to be fed, and while she watched the gleaming necks and rosy feet, she racked her brain to devise some unusually delightful way of enjoying herself, for she really had bottled up her spirits so long, they were in a state of uncontrollable effervescence.
'I 'll go to the opera,' she suddenly announced to the doves. 'It 's expensive, I know, but it 's remarkably good, and music is such a treat to me. Yes, I 'll get two tickets as cheap as I can, send a note to Will, poor lad, he needs fun as much as I do, and we 'll go and have a nice time in some corner, as Charles Lamb and his sister used to.'
With that Polly slammed down the window, to the dismay of her gentle little pensioners, and began to fly about with great energy, singing and talking to herself as if it was impossible to keep quiet. She started early to her first lesson that she might have time to buy the tickets, hoping, as she put a five-dollar bill into her purse, that they would n't be very high, for she felt that she was not in a mood to resist temptation. But she was spared any struggle, for when she reached the place, the ticket office was blocked up by eager purchasers and the disappointed faces that turned away told Polly there was no hope for her.
'Well, I don't care, I 'll go somewhere, for I will have my fun,' she said with great determination, for disappointment only seemed to whet her appetite. But the playbills showed her nothing inviting and she was forced to go away to her work with the money burning her pocket and all manner of wild schemes floating in her head. At noon, instead of going home to dinner, she went and took an ice, trying to feet very gay and festive all by herself. It was rather a failure, however, and after a tour of the picture shops she went to give Maud a lesson, feeling that it was very hard to quench her longings, and subside into a prim little music teacher.
Fortunately she did not have to do violence to her feelings very long, for the first thing Fanny said to her was: 'Can you go?'
'Where?'
'Did n't you get my note?'
'I did n't go home to dinner.'
'Tom wants us to go to the opera to-night and ' Fan got no further, for Polly uttered a cry of rapture and clasped her hands.
'Go? Of course I will. I 've been dying to go all day, tried to get tickets this morning and could n't, been fuming about it ever since, and now oh, how splendid!' And Polly could not restrain an ecstatic skip, for this burst of joy rather upset her.
'Well, you come to tea, and we 'll dress together, and go all comfortable with Tom, who is in a heavenly frame of mind to-day.'
'I must run home and get my things,' said Polly, resolving on the spot to buy the nicest pair of gloves the city afforded.
'You shall have my white cloak and any other little rigging you want. Tommy likes to have his ladies a credit to him, you know,' said Fanny, departing to take a beauty sleep.
Polly instantly decided that she would n't borrow Becky's best bonnet, as she at first intended, but get a new one, for in her present excited state, no extravagance seemed too prodigal in honor of this grand occasion. I am afraid that Maud's lesson was not as thorough as it should have been, for Polly's head was such a chaos of bonnets, gloves, opera-cloaks and fans, that Maud blundered through, murdering time and tune at her own sweet will. The instant it was over Polly rushed away and bought not only the kids but a bonnet frame, a bit of illusion, and a pink crape rose, which had tempted her for weeks in a certain shop window, then home and to work with all the skill and speed of a distracted milliner.
'I 'm rushing madly into expense, I 'm afraid, but the fit is on me and I 'll eat bread and water for a week to make up for it. I must look nice, for Tom seldom takes me and ought to be gratified when he does. I want to do like other girls, just for once, and enjoy myself without thinking about right and wrong. Now a bit of pink ribbon to tie it with, and I shall be done in time to do up my best collar,' she said, turning her boxes topsy-turvy for the necessary ribbon in that delightful flurry which young ladies feel on such occasions.
It is my private opinion that the little shifts and struggles we poor girls have to undergo beforehand give a peculiar relish to our fun when we get it. This fact will account for the rapturous mood in which Polly found herself when, after making her bonnet, washing and ironing her best set, blacking her boots and mending her fan, she at last, like Consuelo, 'put on a little dress of black silk' and, with the smaller adornments pinned up in a paper, started for the Shaws', finding it difficult to walk decorously when her heart was dancing in her bosom.
Maud happened to be playing a redowa up in the parlor, and Polly came prancing into the room so evidently spoiling for a dance that Tom, who was there, found it impossible to resist catching her about the waist, and putting her through the most intricate evolutions till Maud's fingers gave out.
'That was splendid! Oh, Tom, thank you so much for asking me to-night. I feel just like having a regular good time,' cried Polly, when she stopped, with her hat hanging round her neck and her hair looking as if she had been out in a high wind.
'Glad of it. I felt so myself and thought we 'd have a jolly little party all in the family,' said Tom, looking much gratified at her delight.
'Is Trix sick?' asked Polly.
'Gone to New York for a week.'
'Ah, when the cat's away the mice will play.'
'Exactly. Come and have another turn.'
Before they could start, however, the awful spectacle of a little dog trotting out of the room with a paper parcel in his mouth, made Polly clasp her hands with the despairing cry: 'My bonnet! Oh, my bonnet!'
'Where? what? which?' And Tom looked about him, bewildered.
'Snip's got it. Save it! save it!'
'I will!' And Tom gave chase with more vigor than discretion.
Snip, evidently regarding it as a game got up for his special benefit, enjoyed the race immensely and scampered all over the house, shaking the precious parcel like a rat while his master ran and whistled, commanded and coaxed, in vain. Polly followed, consumed with anxiety, and Maud laughed till Mrs. Shaw sent down to know who was in hysterics. A piteous yelp from the lower regions at last announced that the thief was captured, and Tom appeared bearing Snip by the nape of the neck in one hand and Polly's cherished bonnet in the other.
