When she had arranged the pink-and-white roses and carried them to her desk and placed them opposite the flaming ones, she stood back and surveyed them--and shook her head--and smiled radiantly to them. A man, who had come quietly down the hall, stood in the open door of the office. He watched her a minute. He cleared his throat circumspectly. She turned swiftly--and saw him--and moved a reproachful hand to the flowers. "You never ought to have done it!" He smiled on the roses complacently and removed his gloves. "Like 'em?" he asked. She shook her head. "I haven't any call to like them--or not to like them!" It was severe disapproval. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" "I'm not!" He looked at them with satisfaction. He was whistling softly. "I didn't know you wanted flowers--or I'd have sent them before." He had turned--his glance was on her face. Something in the glance sent Aunt Jane hastily across the room. She straightened the furniture a little and came back to the desk and looked at the bunches of roses on either side, regarding them impartially. "I hadn't ought to want flowers--goodness knows!" she said slowly. "I see enough of 'em, around every day, to make any one sick of them for life." She paused and studied the pink-and-white blossoms. "Somehow, it's different--when they're your own! I guess maybe I did need to have them sent to me--so I'd know how folks feel inside--when I open their boxes for them and they look in and see the flowers and see somebody's card on top--somebody that's thought about them--somebody that loves 'em!" she ended it triumphantly and happily and smiled--sharing it with him. Dr. Carmon looked at the two great bunches of flowers--and grunted--and went out. XXXVIII The sunshine in the Children's Ward glinted happily; it touched on bits of brass here and there and gleamed, and slipped across the skylight, making shadows in the room. The white-capped nurses had finished their work. Every bed was freshly made, picture-books and toys were scattered through the ward. Flowers stood on the little stands by the beds; and a great bunch of roses was on the table in the centre, under the skylight. Aunt Jane standing at the door of the ward, looked in, touching the arm of the man beside her. "Those are your roses over there--the ones that came yesterday-- They look nice, don't they?" She spoke in a half-whisper--not to attract the attention of the children. She had wanted him to see the ward like this; and she had wanted him to see Jimmie Sullivan's new leg. And, most of all, she had wanted a good excuse for persuading Herman Medfield to try his strength a little.... If Dr. Carmon's new patient was to have Suite A on Friday, there was no time to waste; and Herman Medfield had been obstinate in refusing to exert himself. "I'm very comfortable where I am!" he had declared. And he had refused to budge, or to wear anything except the æsthetic, blue quilted gown.