Undine blushed as she stooped to pick up the discarded towel.
"I'm afraid I'm very careless," she said apologetically; "Miss Brent said I was, but I love to wait on people."
Miss Graham laughed, and she had such a merry, contagious laugh that she was speedily joined by Marjorie, and even Undine herself.
"It is very pleasant to be waited on," she said, "and I am sure you would make a capital nurse, Undine."
Undine looked pleased.
"I should like to be a nurse," she said. "I used to do lots of things for Mr. Jackson, and he liked to have me. I wish I could wait on you, because then I should feel that I was of some use, and that you weren't just keeping me because you were sorry for me."
There was an unmistakable wistfulness in Undine's tone, and Miss Graham was touched.
"My dear little girl," she said, "I am sure there are many ways in which you can make yourself useful if you stay with us. You will soon learn to be a great help to Mrs. Graham, and there will be many little things you can do for me as well."
Marjorie gave her aunt a grateful glance, and Undine looked relieved. At that moment the afternoon stillness was broken by a sound of distant hoof-beats, and a clear tenor voice singing:
"'On the road to Mandalay,
Where the old flotilla lay.'"