She went with a smile and something sunny to say to the bedside of the one or two patients she remembered to have seen during her last visit. Mrs. 13 she asked after with special interest, and paused with sudden gravity to look at the lines on the suffering face, just now at rest in sleep.
She knew Mrs. 13's story, and her heart burnt within her as she recalled it. How she longed for those who say that the sweating system of ill-paid and unwholesome work is a thing of the past to stand where she stood and see for themselves!
Presently the warm-hearted girl had other thoughts—still kind ones—in her pretty head. She begged her elder sister to come into her room and see what she had put there.
Oh, such a glorious basket of roses!
Sister Warwick plunged her face among them and sighed her enjoyment, not only of the scent, but because they had come from home, and because a dear mother's hands had helped to cut and pack them there.
"They are not for the ward or the patients this time," said the eager young voice. "Mother and I thought of it together. We want one to be laid on each of the nurses' plates at dinner to-day as a little surprise. Do you think Miss Jameson would say 'Yes' if I took them to the Nurses' Home?"
"Of course she would, dear! Only try! And how I wish you could hear what the nurses will say and the look on their faces when they see a pretty, gay table where there is usually a desert-plain of white china! It is a nice thought!"
"Well, mother and I have come to the conclusion that you working-women want freshening with a flower sometimes as well as the rich folk. We mean to do it again some day. Oh, and there are quite enough to go all round, I hope, and to leave a supply for the Sisters' dinner this evening. We weren't going to leave you out, you poor, tired old thing. You look rather washed out, dear."
There was an anxious question in these last words.
Sister Warwick told her a little about her disturbed night, and got a loving kiss of sympathy. Then the merry girl bustled away, leaving behind her an atmosphere the brighter for her coming.