ching him, sobbed on--louder.

The duke gazed at her in a dismal discomfort. He shuffled his feet
till the shuffle was almost a dance. Then he said in a feebly soothing
tone:

"There--there--that'll do."

[Illustration: The Duke gazed at her in dismal discomfort]

Pollyooly's sobs grew yet louder--heartrending.

The duke took a hurried turn up and down the room.

Pollyooly, a huddled figure of desperate woe, sobbed on.

The duke grabbed at his scrubby little moustache and held on to it
firmly. It was no real help.

He ground his teeth; he tugged at his moustache; and then in a tone of
the last exasperation, he cried:

"Oh, hang it all! Stop that infernal howling; and I'll give you the
nomination!"

Pollyooly softened her sobs a little; the duke flung himself down into
the chair before the writing-table, at the other end of the room, and
seized pen and paper.

"What's the brat's name?" he growled.

"Millicent--Saunders," sobbed Pollyooly.

The duke wrote the nomination, put it in an envelope, addressed it to
the secretary of the Bellingham Home, licked the flap of the envelope
with wolfish ferocity, and banged it fast.

He came hastily across the room with it to Pollyooly, held it out, and
said with even greater ferocity:

"Here you are--and--and--much good may it do her!"

Pollyooly rose quickly and took it. She could hardly believe her
shining eyes.

"Oh, thank you, your Grace! Millicent will be so glad!" she cried
joyfully.

The duke growled in his throat; but in some way Pollyooly's radiant
angel face blunted his ferocity. Also it robbed his surrender of its
sting. He rang the bell; then opened the smoking-room door for her and
bade her good day quite in the manner and tone of an English gentleman.

On the threshold, like the well-mannered child she was, she paused to
thank him again. When she went out he shut the door quite gently; and
by the time he had settled down again in his easy chair, he was feeling
truly magnanimous.

CHAPTER X

POLLYOOLY AND THE LUMP GO TO THE SEASIDE

The motor-bus which carried Pollyooly home crawled, to her impatient
fancy, no faster than the old horse-bus, so eager was she to pour the
news of her success into the ears of Millicent.

Millicent, however, after her first joy on hearing that the path which
would ultimately lead her to the altar with an empire-builder was open
to her, grew sad.

"It's a pity I couldn't stay on and on with you h