on to you.'"

"Oh, Bolly! Whad do you mean?" gasped Tom, expectation high once more.

"I like you better than any other friend I ever had, Tom, but I am
determined to try business first. Then, in two years' time if you are
still of the same mind as now, I will consider what you have so often
planned. But not before then. Until that time we will be the best of good
pals."

"Oh, Bolly! Whad a Gridsmad's gifd you habe giben me!" exclaimed Tom, his
face shining radiantly with love and vaseline.

CHAPTER XVI

BEAUX OR BUSINESS

It was very late when the Fabian party reached home that Christmas night;
thus there were no confidences given or taken between the girls until the
following morning. To Eleanor's keen sight Polly appeared ill at ease;
and in the morning, after breakfast, the cloud seemed heavier than
before. Then Eleanor decided to find out what unpleasant experience had
occurred while at Latimers.

"I had a glorious time, last night--didn't you, Poll?" began Eleanor,
guilelessly.

"Oh, yes! Until poor Tom came in with that nasty cold in his head. His
condition was enough to ruin any one's enjoyment, once you saw or heard
him," replied Polly, absentmindedly.

"A mere cold in the head is nothing to worry about. He will probably be
here, today, as fresh as ever. That is, if the quinine he took last night
permits him to see straight." Eleanor laughed in order to show her friend
how unconcerned she was about anything which might have happened at the
Latimers.

"Had you seen him, with his feet in boiling water and mustard, his face
coated with vaseline, his eyes like Bear Forks, and his temper like a
sore hyena's, you wouldn't sit there and say he'd be fresh as ever
today," Polly retorted with a reminiscent smile.

"It's a wonder to me that he permitted you to visit him after he had been
doctored by his mother as you say he was," returned Eleanor, musingly.

"He never would have, Nolla, had I not marched right into the room
without his being aware of my presence. I never even knocked, because his
mother told me he was in her dressing-room, off the large room. I waited
in the large room until I heard him speak, then I pretended to be
surprised and pleased to find him there."

Eleanor laughed. "Yes, I can see you pretend anything, Poll. I just know
your face was as serious as crepe, and your pretence a thing any child
could see through."

"Now, Nolla, you are all wrong! I can prove it. But the grea