Cecilia of the Pink Roses
"You bet they are! You bet!"  Cecilia lifted them reverently. There were three dozens of them. Her years were such that numbers and prices still counted. 

 "Who shall I tell her they're from?" asked Annie.  "Yuh got her goat, yuh know." 

 "Father McGowan," answered Cecilia. Suddenly the guilt of the other lie, her shame over the act unthinkable, and her new realisation of the standing of those she loved, slid from her soul. She was wildly happy. She hugged Annie. 

 The white furniture didn't glitter coldly. It smiled. A crowded flat was far away. The trees in a smug park were beautiful. 

 "One new frock," read Father McGowan, "twenty-five dollars. Hat, fifteen.  'Madam Girard's skin food, and wrinkle remover,' two dollars and fifty cents. Flat-heeled shoes, seven dollars. Taxi, one dollar and fifty-two cents. Church offering, ten cents." 

 Father McGowan threw back his head, and laughed loudly. Jeremiah Madden looked on him, bewildered. 

 "It's her cash account, yuh know. Twenty-five dollars fer one dress," he mused, with a pleased smile.  "Ain't she learnin' quick? But the letter," he added, with a perplexed frown appearing, "it sounds too happy. The happiness is a little too thick. Smells like she put it on with a paint brush jest fer show." 

 "Hum——" grunted Father McGowan. 

 He opened a pink letter sheet. At the top of it a daisy was engraved.  "I give her that paper," said Jeremiah proudly.  "She was tickled. She sez as how none of the girls in school had nothing like it." 

 "I believe it," replied Father McGowan. There were heavy lines in his face. Cecilia's heart-ache lay on his shoulders, he felt, for he had made the "Brick King." 

 "Darling Papa:" read Father McGowan, "I was so happy to hear from you. I read your letters over and over. I love you very much. I am learning that that is the biggest thing in the world, loving people, and having them love you. I miss you, but of course I am happy. 

 "The School is elegant very nice, and I get enough to eat. The view from the front windows is swell beautiful. It looks right out on the Park, all over fancy foliage and rich people walking around. I sometimes walk there, and one little girl, awfully cute, with bare legs and a nurse, likes me. Yesterday 
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