ch Bridget looked contemptuous.

'More than _that_, my dear! However of course it doesn't matter to
them.'

'Don't you think people look at us sometimes, as though we were doing
something wrong?' said Nelly uneasily. They had just passed two old
labourers--fine patriarchal fellows who had paused a moment to gaze at
the motor and the two ladies. 'I suppose it's because--because we look
so smart.'

'Well, why shouldn't we?'

'Because it's war-time I suppose,' said Nelly slowly--'and perhaps
their sons are fighting--'

'We're not fighting!'

'No--but--.' With a slight frown, Nelly tried to express herself. 'It
looks as if we were just living as usual, while--Oh, you know, Bridget,
what people think!--how _everybody's_ trying not to spend money on
themselves.'

'Are they?' Bridget laughed aloud. 'Look at all the dress advertisements
in the papers. Why, yesterday, when I was having tea with those people
at Windermere, there was a man there telling lots of interesting things.
He said he knew some great merchants in the city, who had spent
thousands and thousands on furs--expensive furs--the summer before the
war. And they thought they'd all have been left on their hands, that
they'd have lost heavily. And instead of that they sold them all, and
made a real big profit!'

Bridget turned an almost triumphant look on her sister, as though the
_coup_ described had been her own.

'Well, it isn't right!' said Nelly, passionately. 'It isn't--it
_isn't_--Bridget! When the war's costing so much--and people are
suffering and dying--'

'Oh, I know!' said Bridget hastily. 'You needn't preach to me my dear
child. I only wanted you to look at _facts_. You're always so incurably
sentimental!'

'I'm not!' Nelly protested, helplessly. 'We _make_ the facts. If nobody
bought the furs, the facts would be different. George says it's wicked
to squander money, and live as if everything were just the same as it
used to be. And I agree with him!'

'Of course you do!' laughed Bridget. '_You_ don't squander money, my
dear!'

'Only because I haven't got it to spend, you mean?' said Nelly,
flushing.

'No--but you should look at things sensibly. The people who are making
money are spending it--oceans of it! And the people who have money, like
the Farrells, are spending it too. Wait till you see how they live!'

'But there's the hospital!' cried Nelly.

Bridget shrugged her shoulders.

'That's because they can afford to give the hos