which this
announcement would assuredly be met. A craze to go out to the East
possessed many romantic young ladies of the period, too adventurous
to be satisfied with merely knitting socks and comforters for their
frost-bitten heroes. Colonel Rolleston had frequently expressed a
profound contempt for this mania, refusing to perceive any more exalted
motive for it than a desire to follow their partners. So his horror may
be imagined when his own daughter, whom he had always credited with a
certain amount of sense, thus enrolled herself in the ranks of these fair
enthusiasts.

Cecil allowed the first torrent of words to expend itself, but, in reply
to the contemptuous query of "What earthly use could she be?" reiterated
the fact of her having received a certificate of competency from the
hospital, and adding, that as five of the sisterhood were shortly to be
taken out to Scutari, it would be easy for her to accompany them as a
volunteer. Then, evading further discussion by leaving the room, she
calmly left the idea to work.

It was not certainly innate love of the occupation that had made Cecil so
diligent an attendant of the accident ward. At first she shuddered and
faltered at the simplest operation in which her assistance was called
for, but it was essential to test her own nerve before dressing gun-shot
wounds, besides which, a certificate from the hospital would much
facilitate her chance of being taken out to Scutari. And, moreover, she
was desperately unhappy, and rushed into anything to escape from herself.

I don't know how it was that Cecil prevailed in the end. A year ago, if
she had proposed such a thing, Colonel Rolleston would have a considered
her a fit subject for a _maison de sante_, but he had been thinking for
some time that his daughter was "odd." She was evidently turning out one
of those unmanageable beings, an eccentric woman. Of age, and with an
independent income, if baulked in this, she might only do something else
equally perverse, and, though a most extraordinary fancy for a girl so
brought up, he would not oppose it further.

And then Cecil, when she had got her wish, with a strange inconsistency
seemed almost inclined to give it up again. But the Colonel, being in
ignorance of her vacillating purpose, took her passage in the same ship
as the other nurses.

Work enough was there for every one when that vessel reached its
destination. The battle of the Alma had just been fought, and the w