“I wish he’d keep his old flowers in his greenhouse!” she muttered disdainfully after the door was well shut.  She gazed on the box with a sigh.  Nevertheless, she untied it with hurrying fingers.

Great ruby roses sent their pent-up fragrance straight to her nostrils, and she drew it in with a breath of delight.  Then she flung the box on the bed and finished putting her dresser in order, a task with which she had been occupied.

Little jerky bits of scorn were now and then directed toward the flowers, as if they were responsible for their intrusion.  When their innocence suddenly suggested itself, she smiled.

“Poor things, they can’t help it!  How should I feel if I were carried where I was not wanted and then should be blamed for being there!”

Contritely she took the roses from their box and put them in her prettiest vase, quite as if she would make amends.  She sat down by them and looked the matter in the face.

“I can’t have these where they will remind me all day long of being a silly old woman!” She considered the blossoms with a dismal face.  “What shall I do with them?  I’d put them in a bundle under the bed, only I’d feel so sorry for them—­no, I can’t do that!  I suppose I could give them away—­oh, there’s Mrs. Crump!  The very thing!  Maybe they’ll help her to forget her pain.  I’ll take them in now!” She caught up the vase and bore it triumphantly along the hall.

Mrs. Crump was on the couch.

“All for me?  Why, Miss Sterling!  How good you are!  You can’t have kept many for yourself.”

“I don’t want any,” laughed the donor.  “I’ll be glad enough if you can enjoy them.”

Miss Crilly and Miss Major came in.

“Mis’ Crump! if you’re not tryin’ to beat Miss Sterling!  Seems like a hospital ’stead of a Home, so many roses round!—­You don’t say she’s given you all hers?  My, ain’t you the limit o’ generosity.  Miss Sterling!  You look lots better.  Mis’ Crump!  Maybe it’s the reflection o’ the roses!  Lovely color, ain’t it!  He must be a goner, sure!  How many times a week d’ they come?  ’Nother card swooped, I s’pose?  It beats me!”

Miss Major opened the door for Miss Castlevaine.

“I couldn’t help hearing what you said about another card—­who’s lost one now?”

She shook her head while Miss Crilly explained.  “We shall have to lock up our jewelry pretty soon—­huh!  How do you feel this morning, Mrs. Crump?  Had the doctor?”

The invalid winced and caught her breath, as a sudden twinge shot through her arm.  “I don’t know as I’m any worse,” she said.  “I haven’t slept a wink since two o’clock!  No, the doctor didn’t stop here!  I thought maybe he would, he was in Mrs. Post’s room, right next door; but Mrs. Nobbs said yesterday it wasn’t necessary—­it’s ‘only pain,’ you know!”

“Only pain!” laughed Miss Crilly.  “Isn’t that enough?  Then, when I’m sick it’ll be with something besides pain—­I’ll remember that!  And I’ll have the doctor when I need him—­don’t you forget it!”