the flat. Bridget, grimly defensive,
was peremptorily put on one side, and Cicely devoted the night she was
to have spent in dancing to tending her half-conscious guest. In the
days that followed she fell, quite against her will, under the touching
charm of Nelly's refinement, humility and sweetness. Her own trenchant
and masterful temper was utterly melted, for the time, by Nelly's
helpless state, by the grief which threatened to kill her, and by a
gratefulness for any kindness shewn her, which seemed to Cicely almost
absurd.

She fell in love--impetuously--with the little creature thus thrown upon
her pity. She sent for a trained nurse and their own doctor. She wired
for Hester Martin, and in forty-eight hours Bridget had been entirely
ousted, and Nelly's state had begun to shew signs of improvement.
Bridget took the matter stoically. 'I know nothing about nursing,' she
said, with composure. 'If you wish to look after my sister, by all means
look after her. Many thanks. I propose to go and stay near the British
Museum, and will look in here when I can.'

So she departed, and Cicely stayed in London for three weeks until Nelly
was strong enough to go to Torquay. Then, reluctantly, she gave up her
charge to Bridget, she being urgently wanted at Carton, and Hester at
Rydal. Bridget reappeared on the scene with the same sangfroid as she
had left it. She had no intention of quarrelling with the Farrells
whatever they might do; and in an eminently satisfactory interview with
Sir William--quite unknown to Nelly--she allowed him to give her a
cheque which covered all their expenses at Torquay.

Meanwhile Nelly had discovered Cicely's secret--which indeed was not
very secret. Captain Marsworth had appeared in London for the purpose of
attending his Medical Board, and called at the flat. Nelly was by that
time on the sofa, with Cicely keeping guard, and Nelly could sometimes
deaden her own consciousness for a little in watching the two. What
were they after? Marsworth's ethical enthusiasms and resentments, the
prophetic temper that was growing upon him in relation to the war, his
impatience of idleness and frivolity and 'slackness,' of all modes of
life that were not pitched in a key worthy of that continuous sacrifice
of England's youngest and noblest that was going on perpetually across
the Channel:--these traits in him made it very easy to understand why,
after years of philandering with Cicely Farrell, he was now, apparen