Only the Scotch woman understood her meaning. However, the ice being broken, afterwards there was an attempt at conversation, until finally in desperation Eugenia gave the signal for farewells.
“We shall meet again in the morning,” she said at parting, but showing no enthusiasm at the prospect.
“I am sorry,” Mildred Thornton remarked, once the four girls were back again in their lodgings, “but I am afraid for some reason the girls we have just met feel a prejudice against our nursing in the same hospital with them. I wonder what they could have heard against us? Everyone else has been so grateful and kind. I hope they won’t make the work harder for us. All of us except Eugenia are inexperienced.”
Eugenia nodded her head in agreement. “I am afraid the girl they called Lady Dorothy did not seem to favor us. It is a pity, because she is related to a great many important people, I’m told. But never mind, even if she does dislike us, she can’t interfere with our doing good work.”
Curled up on the bed, Barbara yawned. “Oh, don’t let us look for trouble. One of the things we have got to expect is that some of the English nurses won’t like our American ways or our methods of nursing. We have just to remember that we came over here to preach the gospel of peace, not war, and not dislike anyone. Well, our real life work begins tomorrow. Then we will see what stuff we are made of. I am glad our hospital is partly supported by American money and that Mrs. Payne of New York is sometimes in charge of things. I haven’t yet become an Anglomaniac; so far I only love the soldiers.”
The next morning the trip to the coast followed, and thence across the Channel the way was strangely uneventful. Except that the four American girls now wore their Red Cross costumes, they might have been taken for four girls on a spring shopping journey to Paris. The Channel boats were crossing and recrossing from England to France and back again just as if they had no enemies in the world.
However, the men guiding the destinies of the little steamers were under no such impression. Every foot of the way was traveled with infinite caution. For at any moment disaster might overtake them from the sea or air. But there was no German bomb to destroy the shimmering gold of the atmosphere this May morning, nor dangers in the pathway through the sea. Moreover, from tall towers along both coasts farseeing eyes were watching and protecting the passage of the Channel boats. This morning some of them were carrying passengers across, others khaki-clad soldiers to relieve their wounded comrades.
One surprise, however, awaited the American girls. Quite unexpectedly they discovered that Mrs. Curtis and her son were also crossing the Channel to France on their boat. And Mrs. Curtis reported that Lady Dorian had been taken to The Tower in London where she was being held as a political spy.