"Sir Douglas Munro! Oh Mona! I heard my father say once that Sir Douglas was a good fellow, but that no one could look at him and doubt that he had sown his wild oats very thoroughly." "_Don't!_" said Mona, with a little stamp of her foot. "Why need we think of it? I cannot even tell you how kind he has been to me." Doris was about to reply, but Mr Reynolds came in at the moment, and they chatted on general topics for a few minutes. "Dr Alice Bateson has just come in," he said, in answer to Doris's inquiry after Lucy. Doris's face flushed. "Oh," she said eagerly, "I should so like to meet Dr Alice Bateson." "Should you?" he said, with a fatherly smile. "That is easily managed. We will open the door and waylay her as she comes down. Ah, doctor! here is a young lady from Scotland who is all anxiety to make your acquaintance. May I introduce her?" Miss Bateson came in. She did not at all like to be made a lion of, but Doris's fair, eager face was irresistible. "I am very glad," Doris said shyly, "to express my personal thanks to any woman who is helping on what I consider one of the noblest causes in the world." "It is a grand work," said Dr Bateson rather shortly. "Miss----" she looked at Mona. "Maclean," said Mona, with a smile. "Miss Maclean will be able to show you our School and Hospital. Perhaps we may meet some day at the Hospital. Good morning." "Well?" said Mona, when she was gone. "I think she is splendid--so energetic and sensible. But, you know, I do wish she wore gloves; and she would look so nice in a bonnet." "Come, don't be narrow-minded." "I am not narrow-minded. Personally I like her all the better for her unconventionality. It is the Cause I am thinking of." "Oh, the Cause! It seems to me, dear, that the prophets of great causes always have a thorn in the flesh that they themselves are conscious of, and half-a-dozen other thorns that other people are conscious of; but the cause survives notwithstanding." "I have no doubt that it will survive; but it seems to me that a little care on the part of the prophets would make it grow so much faster. Well, dear, I must go. I will come again on Friday. You will come to my aunt's 'At Home,' won't you?" "If Lucy is better, and your aunt gives me another chance, I shall be only too glad. I shall have to unearth a gown from my boxes at Tilbury's. Heigh-ho, Doris! I might as well have gone all along, for all the good my abstinence did me. A deal of wasted pluck and moral courage goes to failing in one's Intermediate M.B.!" "You have been gone a quarter of an hour," said Lucy fretfully, when Mona re-entered the sick-room, "and Miss Colquhoun had you all day yesterday." "You are getting better, little woman," said Mona, kissing her. "We have so much to talk about----"