Lily smiled a very little.
Nicholas never made it difficult for any woman to see when he was interested.
"The man must have been a bit of a brute, I should fancy. He got engaged to her while she was at this hospital place and they were to be married almost directly, so of course she resigned from the hospital. I fancy, though she must have worked hard there, that the surroundings were never particularly congenial. In fact, she as good as told me that she only went to work so as to give her younger sisters a better time at home. Rather plucky, eh? But of course she left when she thought she was going to be married. And then what does this wretched fellow do but get insanely jealous over some pal or other of hers, lose his head completely, and say things that no girl could possibly overlook. She couldn't forgive him, of course, and I don't blame her. Life with a jealous husband—and for a girl like that—Good Lord!"
"It's odd she should be so attractive," said Lily. "She isn't pretty."
"No—no, I suppose not. But she's taking, don't you think? Something very arresting about her, altogether. I must say, I can't help admiring her spirit. She's told you how they worked them at that place, I suppose?"
"The hospital? Yes."
"For a girl brought up, I suppose, very much as you were yourself," said Nicholas, "it must have taken some spirit to stick it out. She was telling me that there wasn't a soul there of her own class, practically, for her to speak to, and she used to cry from sheer loneliness, sometimes. I can't imagine her crying, somehow."
"Neither can I," said Lily drily.
Something in the quality of the silence that followed did not please her, and she went on speaking hastily:
"But she seems to have made a few friends all the same, Nicholas. At least she's always telling me of the young men who ran after her."