CONTENTS
I. [Consecration]
II. [Music]
III. [Kitty's Dream]
IV. [The Concert]
V. [A Legacy]
VI. [A Trying Position]
VII. [Confidences]
VIII. [The Purse Mark K. H.]
IX. [Katherine Hunt]
X. [You Talk in Riddles]
XI. [The Fancy Ball]
XII. [Katherine Hunt's Strategy]
XIII. [Kitty's Proposal]
XIV. [Away to the Wars]
XV. [The Girl had Kitty's Face]
XVI. [Welcome Her, won't You?]
XVII. [Major Strause]
XVIII. [Peace after Storm]
XIX. [In the Hospital]
XX. [Private Lawson]
XXI. [Kitty's Request]
XXII. [Mollie's Persecutor]
XXIII. [Dark Days]
XXIV. [True to her Promise]
XXV. [Stunned]
XXVI. [The Caves]
XXVII. [The Great Excitement]
XXVIII. ["He that loseth his life shall find it"]
A SISTER OF THE RED CROSS.
CHAPTER I.
CONSECRATION.
Sister Mollie Hepworth was twenty-five years of age. She had just completed a long and exhaustive training as a nurse. She had served her time in the London Hospital, entering as a probationer, and finally being promoted to the proud position of a ward sister. She had then undergone a period of six months' probation at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, as her dream of all dreams was to nurse our soldiers in their hours of danger and death.
Mollie was a bright-looking, handsome girl. Her eyes were brown and well opened; she had a healthy colour in her cheeks; and she held herself as upright as any soldier in Her Majesty's army. No one had ever seen Sister Mollie perturbed or put out—her self-control was proverbial. She had an admirable temper, too, and never allowed an impatient word to cross her lips. She was reticent, and no gossip. Secrets, even important ones, could be intrusted to her without any fear of their being betrayed. Her eyes looked clearly out at life. Her lips were firm; her whole bearing that of one who has made up her mind, whose career is fixed, whose watchword is duty, and whose desire is to benefit her fellow-creatures.
"Put my luggage on the cab, please, porter; there is not a moment to lose, or I shall miss my train," said the clear voice of the Sister on a certain sunny morning early in September 1899.