[XXIII]
In Room 5, Mrs. Pelton was sitting in a big rocking-chair by the window, her feet on a hassock and her eyes fixed on the great bowl of blue forget-me-nots on the table beside her.
She had been looking at the forget-me-nots ever since Aunt Jane appeared with the big box, just before dinner.... She could hardly eat her dinner for looking at them. She had had the bowl of flowers set on her tray—where they crowded the soup and vegetables, and made her happy.... She wished John could see them, and the children could see them—or that there was somebody she could divide with. The beauty of the forget-me-nots was too much for her. It was such a great bunch—it filled the bowl and overflowed the sides. She had never seen so many forget-me-nots in one bunch!... Now and then, sitting in the big chair, she reached out a hand to them and touched the flowers delicately. She wished she were bigger—the happiness of the flowers crowded on her. Perhaps if she were bigger, she could enjoy them more.
Aunt Jane had not seemed overcome by the flowers when she brought them in. She had taken them from the box and shaken them apart with brisk fingers and arranged them in the bowl and moved the stand over by the window close to Mrs. Pelton's chair.
"There!" she had said. "Makes you quite a nice bunch, don't it!" She stood off and admired them.... Mrs. Pelton was thinking now of Aunt Jane, and she was thinking that she did not even know who had sent them—"A man by the name of Herman," Aunt Jane had said.
Mrs. Pelton had gone over in her mind all the people she had ever known—but there were no Hermans that she knew, or that John knew. It seemed very strange for any one to send a great bunch of flowers to her—any one she didn't know!
She wished she could thank him. She wished Mamie could see them. Mamie loved flowers so. She looked at the flowers and thought of Mamie and the children and John—and her face was happy. She looked at the row of photographs ranged along the bureau in front of the mirror.... It had been such a comfortable time at the hospital. And she had dreaded it so before she came! And there wasn't anything to dread. Somehow, it was a beautiful place.... And there was the man who was going to pay for her being here.... She had gone over and over it, in her mind—his paying for her—wondering about it.... They had worried, she and John, and they had turned and twisted every penny, and after all there was not enough.... But of course she had to come. The doctor had said it wouldn't do to put it off; and so she had come, worried and anxious about it all—and right in the room next to her, while she waited—was the man who had offered to pay everything.... It was a beautiful place—with such a good man in it—and Aunt Jane, always doing something for her—and the forget-me-nots. She sighed happily, her eyes on the flowers.
Aunt Jane appeared in the doorway, and surveyed her shrewdly. "Tired?" she asked.