Such a pathetic little bouquet! One stiff pink rose, one yellow daisy, two bright red carnations and three very stiff green leaves, all made of a sort of oil-cloth paper.
A tear fell into the heart of the rose. If it were not really a flower it was at least a good picture of one, just as a photograph can so vividly remind one of the original.
Nora went back to the box. “When can she have put it here?” she wondered. It was under the paper plate.
Then she recalled that this last donation had been hastily deposited in the box, for it was late and Nora had to hurry back to get ready for her own tea at the time she placed it there.
“I must have it put right on her flowers,” she pondered. “Poor, abused, little Lucia!”
Picking up the untouched food Nora discovered a slip of soiled paper beneath it. There was writing on it, a scrawl of some kind. She carried it to the light out from under the dense trees.
“Yes, it’s a note,” murmured Nora, as if Cap, her only companion, understood. And it just says “‘Goodbye, with love.’”
Nora read and reread the scribble. It was written, she decided, in Lucia’s hand, for it was such a crooked, uneven scrawl. The paper was a leaf torn from a book, and this assured Nora that at some time Lucia must have gone to school.
“After all my joy, the party, the enrollment and everything, this has to come,” thought the discouraged girl. “I hoped today I could induce her to come over and see Ted and Jerry.”
It was too disappointing. For the first few days Nora had felt it was safer to allow Lucia to have her way, and when she waited and waited, until the Italian girl appeared, then coaxed and urged that she come over to the cottage, Lucia showed signs of real fright. She would have run from the tree-tent and never returned, if Nora had not promised to agree to her secrecy. After that the benefactor brought the food but was never able to get more than a fleeting glimpse of Lucia, as she scurried off like a little black rabbit with her precious food and her strange secret. And now she was really gone and had said goodbye.