ys--it doesn't seem to be their fault, either;
and they are so ashamed and so utterly miserable when I am obliged
to know about the horror of their condition. . . . Dear, it will
be angelic of you to give me a good, hot scrubbing. I could go to
sleep if you would."

"Of co'se I will," said Celia simply. And, when Ailsa was ready to
call her in she lifted the jugs of water which a negro had
brought--one cold, one boiling hot--entered Ailsa's room, filled
the fiat tin tub; and, when Ailsa stepped into it, proceeded to
scrub her as though she had been two instead of twenty odd.

Then, her glowing body enveloped in a fresh, cool sheet, she lay
back and closed her eyes while Celia brushed the dull gold masses
of her hair.

"Honey-bee, they say that all the soldiers are in love with you,
even my po' Confederate boys in Ward C. Don't you dare corrupt
their loyalty!"

"They are the dearest things--all of them," smiled Ailsa sleepily,
soothed by the skilful brushing. "I have never had one cross word,
one impatient look from Union or Confederate." She added: "They
say in Washington that we women are not needed--that we are in the
way--that the sick don't want us. . . . Some very important
personage from Washington came down to the General Hospital and
announced that the Government was going to get rid of all women
nurses. And such a dreadful row those poor sick soldiers made!
Dr. West told us; he was there at the time. And it seems that the
personage went back to Washington with a very different story to
tell the powers that be. So I suppose they've concluded to let us
alone."

"It doesn't surprise me that a Yankee gove'nment has no use fo'
women," observed Celia.

"Hush, dear. That kind of comment won't do. Besides, some horrid
stories were afloat about some of the nurses not being all they
ought to be."

"That sounds ve'y Yankee, too!"

"Celia! And perhaps it was true that one or two among thousands
might not have been everything they should have been," admitted
Ailsa, loyal to her government in everything. "And perhaps one or
two soldiers were insolent; but neither Letty Lynden nor I have
ever heard one unseemly word from the hundreds and hundreds of
soldiers we have attended, never have had the slightest hint of
disrespect from them."

"They certainly do behave ve'y well," conceded Celia, brushing away
vigorously. "They behave like our Virginians."

Ailsa laughed, then, smiling reflectively, gla