'CICELY.'
CHAPTER XVII
'Well—what news?' said Farrell abruptly. For Cicely had come into his library with a letter in her hand. The library was a fine eighteenth-century room still preserved intact amid the general appropriation of the big house by the hospital, and when he was not busy in his office, it was his place of refuge.
Cicely perched herself on the edge of his writing-table.
'Hester has brought her to Rydal all right,' she said cheerfully.
'How is she?'
'As you might expect. But Hester says she talks of nothing but going to work. She has absolutely set her heart upon it, and there is no moving her.'
'It is, of course, an absurdity,' said Farrell, frowning.
'Absurdity or not, she means to do it, and Hester begs that nobody will try to persuade her against it. She has promised Hester to stay with her for three weeks, and then she has already made her arrangements.'
'What is she going to do?'