Presently the altercation attracted the attention of some one in authority, and the matter was inquired into, the fact being elicited that the new-comer had disdained her appointed portion.
“I haven’t never been used to take my meals wi’out no plate!” she protested with a burst of woe, for her outraged self-respect gave her courage. “There must be plates here—folks couldn’t eat their dinner wi’out no plates, and if ’tis along o’ the washin’ up, there be a-many women here as could do it; I’d do it myself!”
But she was told not to give herself such airs. When people came to the Union they mustn’t be so particular—she must be content to do as others did. Plates indeed! there were no plates there, not even coffin plates!
This joke was duly appreciated, but it fell on poor old Maria’s bewildered ears with an ominous sound, as it were a knell of final doom. “Not even coffin plates!” she murmured to herself; and her tears ceased falling, and she sat gazing vaguely at the wrinkled hands clasped in her lap. “Not even coffin plates!” Her actual misery had hitherto prevented her from dwelling on that last inevitable end, but now it seemed to stare her in the face. A pauper’s grave—that was what awaited her, as surely as death itself.
She passed the next few days in a sort of dream of anguish, hardly taking note of her surroundings; conforming, however, to the rules of the establishment, and eating, or trying to eat, the food allotted to her without further complaint or comment. One morning, however, on endeavouring to rise, she fell sideways against her bed and fainted away.
When she recovered consciousness she found herself in a different part of the house, in the infirmary, indeed, and a nurse was supporting her, and the doctor stood by her bed. As her dim eyes fixed themselves upon his face she recognised him: it was her own doctor; he had attended her—being a young man then—when James was born, and he had done his best for Stickly in his last illness.
“Why, Mrs. Stickly,” he said cheerily, “I didn’t expect to meet an old friend.”
“No, sir,” said Maria faintly, and the dim eyes grew still more dim.
“Well, well, they will take good care of you here—you will not want for anything.”
Maria’s lip trembled, but she said nothing; she followed the doctor appealingly with her eyes as he moved about the room.