Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/201

 head drooped wearily, and her gloom deepened, as she mechanically arranged her papers and began to search vaguely for the key of her desk. She had forgotten the messenger's package and note, both of which stared up at her with mute reproach as her eyes fell thoughtlessly upon them. She lifted the package from its resting-place and untied the string with listless ringers. As she tore off the wrapping-paper and raised the lid of the long box, she uttered a little exclamation of delight which made Randall, at the next desk, look up from his work with a sympathetic smile. Carefully tucked away under waxed paper, and resting on a bed of moss and ferns, were exquisite red roses, whose breath seemed like a greeting from the southern land to which her homesick soul had but now turned. The reporter buried her face in their dewy fragrance, while her eyes for a moment grew dim. It was very sweet to realize that some one had been thinking of her and planning this pleasure for her to-night of all nights. She looked for the card which should have accompanied the flowers, but found none