“Who else could have sent them?”

“They must have cost an awful sight of money,” said Eunice, in an awed tone.  Then she stopped, for Maria re-entered the room with the roses in a tall vase.  She wore some of them pinned to the shoulder of her blue gown that evening.  She knew who had sent them, and it seemed to her that she did not overestimate the significance of the sending.  When she started for Westbridge that evening she was radiant.  She had the roses carefully pinned in tissue-paper to protect them from the cold; her long, blue cloak swept about her in graceful folds, she wore a blue hat with a long, blue feather.

“Why didn’t you wear a head tie?” asked Aunt Maria.  “Ain’t you afraid you will spoil that hat if you take it off?  The feather will get all mussy.”

“I shall put it in a safe place,” replied Maria, smiling.  She blushed as she spoke.  She knew perfectly well herself why she wore that hat, because she thought Wollaston might escort her to the trolley, and she wished to appear at her best in his eyes.  Maria no longer disguised from herself the fact that she loved this man who was her husband and not her husband.  She knew that she was entirely ready to respond to his advances, should he make any, that she would be happier than she had ever been in her whole life if the secret which had been the horror of her life should be revealed.  She wondered if it would not be better to have another wedding.  That night she had not much doubt of Wollaston’s love for her.  When she entered the car, and saw besides herself several young girls prinked in their best, who were also going to the Christmas-tree, she felt a sort of amused pride, that all their prinking and preening was in vain.  She assumed that all of them had dressed to attract Wollaston.  She could not think of any other man whom any girl could wish to attract.  She sat radiant with her long, blue feather sweeping the soft, yellow puff of her hair.  She gave an affect of smiling at everybody, at all creation.  She really felt for the first time that she could remember a sense of perfect acquiescence with the universal scheme of things, therefore she felt perfect content and happiness.  She thought how wonderful it was that poor Gladys Mann, lying in her unmarked grave this Christmas-time, should have been the means, all unwittingly, of bringing such bliss to herself.  She thought how wonderful that Evelyn’s loss should have been the first link in such a sequence.  She thought of Evelyn with a sort of gratitude, as if she had done something incalculable for her.  She also thought of her as always with the utmost love and pride and tenderness.  She reflected with pleasure on the gift which she herself had hung on the tree for Evelyn, and how pleased the child would be.  It was a tiny gold brooch with a pearl in the centre.  Evelyn was very fond of ornaments.  Maria did not once imagine of the possibility that Evelyn could have any dreams herself