t until their fingers grew more supple. This they took
to very kindly, knitting jerseys and socks; and since those early days
both the Paris and country ouvroirs had sent (June, 1916) twenty
thousand packages to the soldiers. Each package contained a flannel
shirt, drawers, stomach band, waistcoat or jersey, two pairs of socks,
two handkerchiefs, a towel, a piece of soap. Any donations of tobacco
or rolled cigarettes were also included.

This burden in the country has been augmented heavily by refugees
from the invaded districts. Of course they come no more these days,
but while I was in Paris they were still pouring down, and as the
Waddington estate was often in their line of march they simply camped
in the park and in the garage. Of course they had to be clothed, fed,
and generally assisted.

As Madame Waddington's is not one of the picturesque ouvroirs she has
found it difficult to keep it going, and no doubt contributes all she
can spare of what the war has left of her own income. Moreover, she is
on practically every important war relief committee, sometimes as
honorary president, for her name carries great weight, often as
vice-president or as a member of the "conseil." After her ouvroirs the
most important organization of which she is president is the Comite
International de Pansements Chirurgicaux des Etats Unis--in other
words, surgical dressings--started by Mrs. Willard, and run actively
in Paris by Mrs. Austin, the vice-president. When I visited it they
were serving about seven hundred hospitals, and no doubt by this time
are supplying twice that number. Two floors of a new apartment house
had been put at their disposal near the Bois, and the activity and
shining whiteness were the last word in modern proficiency (I shall
never use that black-sheep among words, _efficiency_, again).

One of Madame Waddington's more personal oeuvres is the amusement she,
in company with her daughter-in-law, provides for the poilus in the
village near her son's estate. Regiments are quartered there, either
to hold themselves in readiness, or to cut down trees for the army.
They wandered about, desolate and bored, until the two Madame
Waddingtons furnished a reading-room, provided with letter paper and
post-cards, books and, I hope, by this time a gramophone. Here they
sit and smoke, read, or get up little plays. As the chateau is now
occupied by the staff the two patronesses are obliged to go back and
forth from Paris, and