“Yes; certainly I will,” returned Ernie; while Meta asked, with a glance
at the posy in my button-hole:
“Did Robin get many flowers for Easter?”
“Indeed he did,” I returned; “a pot of pansies, a lily, a purple
hyacinth, and a beautiful crimson rambler. It is one mass of bloom. It
came just before church, and there was no card, so we have been guessing
ever since.”
Meta nodded her head in a satisfied way. “He and Geof ought to have
something pretty,” she said. “They have been sick so long, and it must
be horrid to lie in bed with nothing but the wallpaper to look at. I
think it’s rather nice to send Easter cards with Easter flowers, instead
of your name, don’t you?”
Then we separated, and I thought no more of Meta’s remark; but this
afternoon when Ernie stole on tiptoe into Geof’s room, the first thing
she noticed, after the patient, of course, was a second crimson rambler
rose, the exact duplicate of Robin’s.
“Where did it come from, Geof?” asked Ernie, hoping to clear up the
mystery of Bobsie’s plant. “Was there any card?”
“Why, no,” answered Geof. His poor hands were those of a skeleton; his
voice was a whisper; his eyes seemed the only living thing left. When
Ernie looked at him, she wanted to kiss him and cry;—but that would not
have been cheering, so she asked about the crimson rambler, instead.
“It came this morning, just before church. Meta brought it up. There
wasn’t any visiting card, but there was this Easter affair with the
moulting angel. I told Meta he’d make a big mistake if he tried to fly
with _those_ wings; and she didn’t seem to like it much, though she
said, ‘I was undoubtedly an authority on the subject!’ It’s the first
_natural_ remark she’s made to me since I’ve been sick,” added Geof,
with a weak little chuckle. “I,—I rather think I liked it.”
“Well,” says Ernie, in a burst of really unusual perspicacity, “I don’t
wonder Meta didn’t enjoy your criticism! I’m willing to bet my hat (it’s
the old one with the frozen pompon, you know) that she alone is
responsible for the angel and the rose, too. Robin received duplicates
this morning, just about the same time; only his angel has a drum
instead of a trumpet, and from something Meta said to Elizabeth I am
almost sure that she chose them!”
Geof’s pale cheeks flushed and he lay quiet for a moment. “I never
suspected it,” he said, at last; “but I guess perhaps you’re right.
Certainly Meta has been treating me pretty white, lately, and the mater,
too. I,—I wouldn’t wonder a bit, Bunnie, if things were going to be
different.”
Meantime mother, Aunt Adelaide, and Uncle George were holding an equally
interesting conversation in the library downstairs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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