s not your afternoon out. What do you mean?"

"I wouldn't ask if it wasn't necessary. The fact is, there's great
trouble at home, and I--I must see my mother, and perhaps I may have to
make another visit."

Sister Kate frowned.

"I don't wish not to sympathize with you, of course," she said, after a
pause, "but the fact is, nurses should detach themselves as much as
possible from home-life. The nurse who really gives herself up to her
splendid calling has to try to forget that she has a home. She has to
remember that her first duties consist in taking care of her patients
and in learning her profession."

"Then I can't be a nurse," said Effie, the color rushing into her face.

Sister Kate looked at her and shook her head.

"I am very sorry," she said, after a pause. "The fact is, I had great
hopes of you--you have many of the qualifications which go to make a
splendid nurse; I won't recount them here. I had, as I said, great hopes
of you, but your words now make me fear that, excellent as those
qualifications are, they are overbalanced."

"By what?" asked Effie.

"By sentimentality--by nervous overworry about matters which you should
leave in other hands."

"I have no other hands to leave them in; the fact is, home duties must
always be first with me. I've got a mother and several young brothers
and sisters. I am the eldest daughter. I cannot let my mother suffer,
even to indulge what has been for a long time the great dream of my
life. It is very probable that I shall have to give up being a nurse."

"How can you? You are engaged here for three years."

"I must beg of the Governors of the hospital to let me off; the case is
a special one--the trouble under which I am suffering is most
unexpected. I fear, I greatly fear, that I shall be obliged to leave the
hospital for a time."

"I am truly sorry to hear that," said Sister Kate. "Does your friend
Miss Fraser know of this?"

"Yes."

"I hope it may not be necessary. As I said, you have the making of a
good nurse in you. You want to go away for a few hours? Well, I'll try
and manage it. Perhaps when you go home and see your people, you will
find that it is unnecessary for you to sacrifice yourself to this
extent. Anyhow you can have from two till five to-day. Now go and much
in train for the afternoon as you can. You can stay out from two till
five. I hope you'll have good news for me when you return."

"I hope I shall," said Effie; but her heart felt l