to, but Mrs. Brander put an end to it by
saying--

"We shall have plenty of time to talk that over, girls--it must depend
upon many things. Your father's health will, of course, be the first
consideration. At any rate, I shall set my face against London. So you
can put that altogether out of your minds. An income that would be
sufficient to establish one in a good position near a country or seaside
town would be nothing in London. And now, Cuthbert, we want to hear a
great deal more about our dear Mary. She writes so seldom, and of course
she has been cut off for so long a time from us that we scarcely know
what she is doing. In Germany she did not seem to be doing anything
particular, but as she said in her letters, was studying the people and
their language."

"That is what she was doing in Paris--at least that is what she came to
do, but the siege put a stop to her studies, and she devoted herself to
the much more practical work of nursing the wounded."

"Dear me, what an extraordinary girl she is," Mrs. Brander said, much
shocked. "Surely there were plenty of women in Paris to nurse the
wounded without her mixing herself up in such unpleasant work, of which
she could know absolutely nothing."

"She was a very good nurse, nevertheless," Cuthbert said, quietly. "She
worked in the American ambulance, under an American doctor, the other
nurses and assistants being all American or English."

"How do you know she was a good nurse, Mr. Hartington?" Clara asked.

"Simply because I was one of her patients, Miss Brander. I joined one of
the corps of Franc-tireurs, in which most of my student-friends enrolled
themselves, and had the bad luck to get shot through the body in the
sortie at Champigny, and as your sister was one of the nurses in the
tent where I lay, I think that I am a pretty fair judge as to her powers
of nursing. She was often there during the heaviest time for twenty-four
hours at a stretch, and completely knocked herself up by he continued
labors. At any rate I consider I owe my life in no small degree to her
care."

"I don't think we ever understood Mary," Mr. Brander said, in a more
peremptory tone than the girls had heard him use since his seizure.
"There is no doubt that it was as much our fault as it was hers. I feel
proud to hear that she has done such noble work. Mr. Hartington tells
me," he said, abruptly changing the conversation, "that he has been
working hard with the intention of making art