y, smart, and useless, and so they remained under German
rule--those, at least, who did not run away. They avoided nursing
Germans with great skill, and overcrowded the French and English wards.
They were very diplomatic in their dealings with the enemy, as silly and
pitiful in their hatred of the German and their cautious dealings with
him as they were in their other activities. Their hatred was of the
emptyheaded kind, but all the more dangerous for being based on
frivolity of heart and crass ignorance.

Side by side with them were a few intellectual women, professors and
teachers. Most of them followed in the wake of their sisters and behaved
in a similar manner. One of them, a woman I had known before, had spent
many years of her life in Germany and had taught the German language for
nearly twenty years. Before the war she had often told me how lovable
she had found the German people, what good friends she had in Germany
and how she always enjoyed a holiday there, so that when some of my
German patients asked me for books, I thought she would be the very
person to whom to apply for some.

To my astonishment she flew into a passion when she heard my request.

"Want books, do they? They will soon ask for chickens and lobsters."

Walking into my ward, she exclaimed haughtily: "So you are asking for
books! As you set fire to everything, there are no books left for you!"

Very little of the nursing was done by these women, however, who,
instead of being a real help for the most part, put spokes in the wheels
of the more useful helpers. The hardships of overwork, of long hours, of
day and night duties in succession, fell all the more heavily on the
shoulders of a few willing women, the other part of the female element
proving so unreliable.

These women, whose devotion never flagged, comprised three trained
nurses and nine or ten women clerks or teachers, of quite another type
to those mentioned above. It is true they were not all free from hatred,
but, if I may so express it, theirs was almost a hopeful hatred compared
with the blind stupidity of those others.

Amongst the three professional nurses I remember a tall, handsome girl
of 22 or thereabouts. Hers was an ardent soul, one of those souls which
keep young in spite of advancing years. Whatever task this girl sets
herself to do she will carry it through with skill and earnestness.
Whichever cause she champions she will do so in no light spirit, and it
was thu