“Mrs. Coblenz, my—­poor little lady, your mother don’t need you to take her back.  She’s gone back where—­where she wants to be.  Look at her face, little lady.  Can’t you see she’s gone back?”

“No!  No!  Let me go.  Let me touch her.  No!  No!  Mama darling!”

“Why, there wasn’t a way, little lady, you could have fixed it for that poor—­old body.  She’s beyond any of the poor fixings we could do for her.  You never saw her face like that before.  Look!”

“The wreaths—­the wreaths!”

He picked up the raffia circle, placing it back again against the quiet bosom.

“Poor little lady!” he said.  “Shila—­that’s left for us to do.  You and me, Shila—­we’ll take the wreaths back for her.”

“My darling—­my darling mother!  I’ll take them back for you!  I’ll take them back for you!”

“We’ll take them back for her—­Shila.”

“I’ll—­”

“We’ll take them back for her—­Shila.”

“We’ll take them back for you, mama.  We’ll take them back for you, darling!”

THE END