The other ladies realized that the Fox of a Gertrude had scored a bull's-eye. At Christmas it was fondly hoped in the family that the Mayor would at last have a grandson. Certainly, Mrs. Doctor could not be expected to take an active part at the Floral Hall.
There were occasions, however, when Mrs. Doctor was visited by some of her father's driving force and power of will. And this was one of them. If a calamity of the first magnitude was to be averted--Gerty as Deputy-Mayoress was unthinkable!--there must be no half measure. "Horace says it will do Mother good to distribute the prizes at the Floral Hall, and if she doesn't I am sure that quite a lot of people will be disappointed."
Even for Ethel this was rather cynical. She was well aware that she had greatly overrated the public's power of disappointment; at the same time it was clearly a case for strong action. "You'll go to the Floral Hall, Mother. And I'll come with you."
"_You_, dear?" Gerty spoke in a melodramatic whisper.
"I shall sit just behind her ... in the second row. We can't have people talking. And I shall put on my fur coat."
It was a blow on the sconce for the specious Gertrude, but she took it with disarming meekness, smiling, as Ethel mentally described her, "like a prize Angora" down her long, straight, rather adventurous nose.
"It's your duty, Mother." Mrs. Doctor proceeded to administer a mental and moral shaking. "The women of the city look up to you, they expect you to set an example. Miss Heber-Knollys feels that very strongly. And Horace, who is a far cleverer man than Doctor Tremlett, says all you have to do is to keep yourself up."
"In other words, Maria," cooed Gerty in the voice of the dove, "you must show Spirit. And that is what I always tell you."
There were times when Gerty was amazing. Her audacity took away the breath even of Ethel. As for Maria she felt a little giddy. She was fascinated.
Maria went to the Floral Hall. And she was seen there to great advantage. She wore a new hat chosen for her by Ethel at the most fashionable shop in the city; she distributed the prizes to the Orphans' Guild in a manner which extorted praise from even the diminished Gertrude; she didn't actually "say a few words," but her good heart--speaking figuratively of course--and her motherly presence spoke for her; and as Miss Heber-Knollys said, in felicitously proposing a vote of thanks to the Mayoress on whose behalf the Mayor responded, she had brought a ray of sunshine into the lives of those who saw the sun too seldom.