He started down the stairs. Tomorrow morning was not going to be so difficult after all. When she came in with the tray he would show her the broken pieces and tell her he had only taken the flowers up to admire them when they fell from his hand. He would show her how he had saved the flowers for her in a glass of water, and he would promise to buy her a new cut-glass bowl. He would bring the new bowl home with him tomorrow night, and if it didn’t cost too much he might even get her a smaller bowl of the same pattern as well. She liked things that matched. She wouldn’t question him about what had really happened. She would be very pleased to hear he was going to go to the trouble of getting her a new bowl. She would tell him not to bother, but he would insist. She wouldn’t mention the anniversary. There would be no awkwardness. Martin knew Delia was no more anxious for a scene than he was, and in any case they both had the children to consider.

The Carpet with the Big Pink Roses on It

__________

THE BEIGE CARPET with the big pink roses on it had been taken up off the floor of the front sitting room and dragged through the hall and through the kitchen and out into the garden and laid on the grass, where it was now being beaten and brushed by a small woman whose face wore an unbecoming expression of severity. That was Mrs. Bagot. She thought it was funny that her two children, who ought to be getting fresh air, were in the house, while the carpet was out in the garden getting fresh air. The carpet owed its airing to the long dry spell. There had been no rain for almost two weeks, and the grass was very dry. It needed water, and it would need it more than ever after having been crushed by the carpet. But because the grass was dry, the carpet was safe — there would be no damp spots on it. The carpet was safe, and the grass would be saved, although saved was too strong a word — there was no danger of the grass withering. The grass would be refreshed. And in the meantime the carpet looked beautiful, as though the true foundations of the garden had been uncovered and found to be full of pink roses.