“Don’t you think Mildred is keeping up wonderfully well when she hears so little news of General Alexis? He is still a prisoner and must remain one until the new government discovers that in spite of his personal friendship for the former Czar, he believes in democracy. It seems rather a pity at present that they must lose the services of so fine an officer. But, by the way, Nona, I meant to tell you, I had a letter from a friend of yours, a Dr. Latham. He wrote me he had not seen you in the United States, but that Sonya had told him you were coming to me. He seems to feel he would like to help us here at our American hospitals, not his one alone, but wherever he may be most useful. Of course I know him by reputation.”
Nona frowned slightly.
“Oh, I was not sure Dr. Latham had returned from Italy, although he did not intend to stay after he had been able to teach his new treatments of wounds to the Italian surgeons. He is a wonderful surgeon, but a great bear of a man, and in a way I am sorry if he is to come here. He took up such a lot of my time in Florence.”
But at this instant Barbara Thornton made a pretense of knocking on the door, although she entered without waiting for a reply.
“Don’t you and Nona think it would be wiser for all four of us to be in the same room when we talk, Gene, instead of having to repeat everything we say? I have just had a most cheerful and agreeable letter from Dick. But do you suppose that husband of mine deigns to tell me where he is? This ‘somewhere in France’ address must get on a good many people’s nerves. But he need not be afraid I shall try to look him up or interrupt him. I expect to be as busy as he is.”
Barbara took hold of Eugenia by one hand and drew her to a seat beside her on the bed.
“Hope I shall be a more satisfactory Red Cross nurse this time than I was at the beginning, Gene. Remember, you wished to send me home then? But you always were wonderful. Do you know, I think you were intended to be a Mother Superior or a Lady Abbess, if you had lived in other days, Gene? As it is, I would rather work under you as a Red Cross nurse than any other woman in Europe.”
“Don’t be a goose, Bab,” Madame Castaigne returned with just a sufficient reminder of her one-time severity to make the three other nurses, including Barbara, smile.
“But there, I can’t remember you are a married woman with a baby child. It was fine of you to come over to us to help, under the circumstances.”
Barbara hesitated and flushed. “I don’t wish to sail under false colors, Gene, with you or Mildred or Nona. I think I came to Europe half because Dick is here and the other half because I wish to help. Do you think I can ever manage to see him? I couldn’t have endured his being so far away.”