With $9 to her credit in the asylum's system of personal accounts,
Bertha wanted some of this sum for "shopping," but when it was refused
she accepted the situation without particular protest. The idea of
going uptown, five miles from South Bartonville, was delightful. Her
spirits rose high at the idea, and when her nurses had brought her
over to the administration building she dropped into the office chair
occupied by Dr. Zeller, and in mock seriousness turned to the little
group, asking what she could do for them.
On the Pekin and Peoria electric road she was banked in next the
window by her escorts, and was the pink of propriety until Peoria was
reached, save as occasionally she turned backward toward the conductor
and smiled. And invariably the conductor smiled in return!
"Honey" was her designation of Nurse Quick. "I'm a perfect lady,
ain't I, Honey?" she repeated a score of times on the trip. In the
photographer's gallery the snap of the camera shutter brought a start
from the object of the lens, and the first picture in six years, save
as the police authority of the state had insisted that she pose for it.
But after the ordeal at the photographer's Bertha wanted most of all a
"square meal." Miss Quick knew of a restaurant where quiet prevailed
and where there would be little incentive to Bertha to faint, and
there the little party adjourned for the "square meal." Pie--apple or
mince--was the dessert.