"I wonder what I'd better do with these." She looked at the flowers in
the box in her lap. "They're about the prettiest ones she's sent
you--forget-me-nots." She lifted a handful of the blossoms and held them
out.
He regarded them cynically. "I'm not likely to forget!" he said.
She looked at him over the flowers and smiled. "_She_ doesn't seem to
forget either.... I guess she thinks a good deal of you," she added
quaintly.
He shook his head. "You'd be wrong. She doesn't care any more for me
than--that clothes-pole there!"
Aunt Jane looked at it uncritically.
"She sent those--" He motioned to the flowers, "to Herman Medfield's
money! She began on the boy," he said scornfully. "She's a dozen years
older than Julian and twice as clever. I packed him off to Europe when I
found out--then she started in on the old man!"
Aunt Jane looked at him with interest. "I didn't know as you had a
boy--how old is he?" she said quickly.
"Twenty-two," said Medfield.
"That's an interesting age, isn't it?" Aunt Jane was thoughtful. "That's
just the age my boy would have been--if he'd lived. I'm always wondering
what he would be doing now." She was silent a minute. Then she looked at
him and smiled. "Europe isn't so very far off," she said.
She gathered up the flowers in her lap, and glanced toward the door.
Herman Medfield's dinner was being brought in.
Miss Canfield carried the big tray in both hands. Aunt Jane glanced at
it and got up.
"I guess I'll give your flowers to Mrs. Pelton," she said slowly. "She
doesn't happen to have any flowers. Nobody's sent her any--yet. She'll
be real pleased with 'em."
She cast another glance at the tray. "They've brought you a good dinner
to-day--beefsteak and onions and green peas."