One sees every little thing about oneself so clearly. I
know how a wee spot seems like a Vesuvius when it is on one's nose.
With smallpox the marks do get more and more invisible."

"No, my looks will never come back," Millicent said miserably. "And
for a woman like me, when her looks are gone, what is there left?"

"Work," Margaret said. "The war will make you forget all about
personal things--it will, really. Life is different now. If you will
only take up some war-work--and I know you will, for every able-bodied
woman in England is working at something; every superfluous woman has
become a thing of value--life will be completely changed. There is
only one idea, one aim for us all--to win the war. You must do your
bit. It is just our 'bit' that keeps us sane, for without it we should
have time to think. We women must not think, we must work."

"But what could I do?"

"Almost anything," Margaret said. "You know you could--you are so
clever."

"Don't flatter, please," Millicent said. "How can you be so forgiving?"

"I suppose because I'm so happy. As soon as ever you can," Margaret
said, "take up some work which necessitates using all your brain, all
your energy. You will become so interested in what you are doing that
you will forget your troubles. I had no time to grieve over mine when
I was working in the hospital. At night I was so tired out that I went
to sleep as soon as my head was on the pillow. The atmosphere of work,
the awfulness of this war, makes personal things seem very trivial--one
grows ashamed of them."

"You are trying to give me hope," Millicent said. "It is so big and
kind of you, but honestly, I only came here to tell you about your
lover, not to talk about my hideous self. What does it matter what I
do? You were always a worker--I was not."

"Well, you have told me about Michael, and now I can at least try to
help you. I have seen the effect of almost a year of the war on the
idle women of England. It is wonderful! And we used to be called
superfluous!" Margaret laughed proudly.

"You believe me? You know that I am not lying? that I never reached
the hills? that I never knew that Michael had not discovered the
treasure?" Millicent had gone back to the original object of her
visit. What Margaret had advised seemed to her impossible.

As she said the last words, the door opened and Michael entered the
room. He had heard Millicent's voice. His eyes were fixed o