“I have not seen this one of Mr. Lind before. It is capital. Ah! this of you is an old friend.”
“Yes. What do you think of the one of Constance on the opposite page?”
“She looks as if she were trying to be as lugubrious as possible. What dress is that? Is it a uniform?”
“Yes. She joined a nursing guild. Didnt Mrs. Douglas tell you?”
“I believe so. I forgot. She went into a cottage hospital or something of that kind, did she not?”
“She left it because one of the doctors offended her. He was rather dreadful. He said that in two months she had contributed more to the mortality among the patients than he had in two years, and told her flatly that she had been trained for the drawing-room and ought to stay there. She was glad enough to have an excuse for leaving; for she was heartily sick of making a fool of herself.”
“Indeed! Where is she now?”
“Back at Towers Cottage, moping, I suppose. That’s Mr. Conolly the inventor, there under Jasper.”
“So I perceive. Clever head, rather! A plain, hard nature, with no depths in it. Is that his wife, with the Swiss bonnet?”
“His wife! Why, that is a Swiss girl, the daughter of a guide at Chamounix, who nursed Marian when she sprained her ankle. Mr. Conolly is not married.”