ened at the neck
with a large horn button anything but decent."

"Yes, it's cairtainly sober," said Ellen placidly. "Beauty, indeed! I'm
past thinking of beauty, after having been up all night giving mother
her medicine and encouraging her, and getting her ready in the morning
for the ambulance, and going away over to the doctor at Church Hill for
my injection this afternoon. I fear to think what I'm looking like,
though doubtless it would do me good to know."

"You must be tired out. Run along to bed. I'll go away now and come back
the first thing in the morning."

"Who's talking of bed?" she complained with a smiling peevishness.
("Ye've got--ye've got remarkable eyebrows. The way they grow makes me
feel all--all desperate.") "I've had a lie-down since four. You woke me
up with your knocking. Dear, I've never been woken up so beautifully
before. Now I want my supper. I never lose my appetite even when the
Liberals win a by-election, which considering the way our women work
against them is one of those things that disprove all idea of a just
Providence. Dear, but it'll be such a poor supper to set before you!
There's not a thing in the house but a tin of salmon. It is a mercy that
mother isn't here, for this is the kind of thing that upsets her
terribly. She wakes me up sometimes dreaming of the time the milk was
sour when Mr. Kelman came on his parish visit, though that's five years
ago now. Oh, Richard, mother is such a wee sensitive thing, you cannot
think! I cannot bear her to be ill! But indeed she is not very ill. The
doctor said she was not very ill. He said I would be a fule to worry.
She would be at me for letting you stand out in the hall like this. You
go into the parlour. I'll light the fire, and then I'll away to the
kitchen and get the supper. We must just make the best of it, and I have
heard that some people prefer tinned salmon to fresh."

"It's the distinguishing mark of connoisseurs in all the capitals of
Europe," said Richard. "But darling, don't light a fire for me. I'll go
off as soon as you've had supper, so that you can turn in."

"But as soon as supper's eaten I have to away out. Ah, will you come
with me? I like walking through the streets with you. It's somehow like
a procession. You're awful like a king, Richard. Not the present Royal
Family."

"But why must you go out?"

"To see how mother is. Do you not know? When the ambulance men come they
give you a number. Mother's is ninety-th