CHAPTER XV.
BREAKERS AHEAD.
GOING into the Shaws' one evening, Polly found Maud sitting on the stairs, with a troubled face. "Oh, Polly, I'm so glad you've come!" cried the little girl, running to hug her.
"What's the matter, deary?"
"I don't know; something dreadful must have happened, for mamma and Fan are crying together up stairs, papa is shut up in the library, and Tom is raging round like a bear, in the dining-room."
"I guess it isn't anything very bad. Perhaps mamma is sicker than usual, or papa worried about business, or Tom in some new scrape. Don't look so frightened, Maudie, but come into the parlor and see what I've got for you," said Polly, feeling that there was trouble of some sort in the air, but trying to cheer the child, for her little face was full of a sorrowful anxiety, that went to Polly's heart.
"I don't think I can like anything till I know what the matter is," answered Maud. "It's something horrid, I'm sure, for when papa came home, he went up to mamma's room, and talked ever so long, and mamma cried very loud, and when I tried to go in,
