L. T. Meade
A Sister of the Red Cross: A Tale of the South African War
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066138400
Table of Contents
CHAPTER VI. A TRYING POSITION.
CHAPTER VIII. THE PURSE MARK K. H.
CHAPTER X. YOU TALK IN RIDDLES.
CHAPTER XII. KATHERINE HUNT'S STRATEGY.
CHAPTER XIII. KITTY'S PROPOSAL.
CHAPTER XIV. AWAY TO THE WARS.
CHAPTER XV. THE GIRL HAD KITTY'S FACE.
CHAPTER XVI. WELCOME HER, WON'T YOU?
CHAPTER XVIII. PEACE AFTER STORM.
CHAPTER XXII. MOLLIE'S PERSECUTOR.
CHAPTER XXIV. TRUE TO HER PROMISE.
CHAPTER XXVII. THE GREAT EXCITEMENT.
CHAPTER XXVIII. "HE THAT LOSETH HIS LIFE SHALL FIND IT."
CHAPTER I.
CONSECRATION.
Sister Mollie Hepworth was twenty-five years of age. She had just completed a long and exhaustive training as a nurse. She had served her time in the London Hospital, entering as a probationer, and finally being promoted to the proud position of a ward sister. She had then undergone a period of six months' probation at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, as her dream of all dreams was to nurse our soldiers in their hours of danger and death.
Mollie was a bright-looking, handsome girl. Her eyes were brown and well opened; she had a healthy colour in her cheeks; and she held herself as upright as any soldier in Her Majesty's army. No one had ever seen Sister Mollie perturbed or put out—her self-control was proverbial. She had an admirable temper, too, and never allowed an impatient word to cross her lips. She was reticent, and no gossip. Secrets, even important ones, could be intrusted to her without any fear of their being betrayed. Her eyes looked clearly out at life. Her lips were firm; her whole bearing that of one who has made up her mind, whose career is fixed, whose watchword is duty, and whose desire is to benefit her fellow-creatures.
"Put my luggage on the cab, please, porter; there is not a moment to lose, or I shall miss my train," said the clear voice of the Sister on a certain sunny morning early in September 1899.
The man obeyed. A neat trunk, followed by a hat-box, was deposited on the top of a cab, and a moment later Sister Mollie had left Netley. She was going to spend a fortnight with her sister in London.
"A fortnight of absolute rest," she said to herself; "a whole fourteen days with nothing special to do! No necessity to think of my patients; no obligation to rise at a given hour in the morning. To be out of training for a whole fortnight! I can scarcely believe it. I wonder if I shall enjoy it. I know one thing, at least, that I shall enjoy, and that is seeing Kitty. I have not met my darling for nearly two years!"
As this thought came to Mollie Hepworth, dimples visited her cheeks, and her eyes shone so brightly that some of her fellow-passengers turned to look at her.
She was wearing her nurse's uniform, and it set off her clear complexion and graceful figure to the best possible advantage. Sister Mollie arrived at her destination between five and six o'clock that evening. Her cab conveyed her to a large house in Maida Vale.
The moment she entered, a merry voice shouted her name, and a girl, with complexion and eyes very like her own, rushed downstairs and flung herself into her arms.
"O Mollie, this is like heaven! I have been counting the moments until you came. And how are you? Do let me have a good look. Are you altered? No, I declare, not a bit! Come upstairs; you and I are to share the same bedroom. You will have such a hearty welcome from Aunt Louisa; but she is out now with Gavon."
"Do you know, Kitty," replied Mollie, "that I have never yet seen Gavon Keith?"
"He is at home now," replied the other girl. "You will see plenty of him by-and-by. Oh, how I have missed you, and how delightful it is to