sisterhood that evening; but worse still was in store, for on the
morrow, early, the Esmeralda came steaming in from Hong Kong, where,
despite her roundabout voyage, the Belgic had arrived before the
slow-moving Sacramento had rounded the northern point of Luzon, and, on
the deck of the Esmeralda as she steered close alongside the transport,
and thence on the unimpeded way to her moorings up the Pasig, in plain
view of the sisterhood, tall, gaunt, austere, but triumphant, towered
the form of the vice-president of the Patriotic Daughters of America.

For two days more the Sacramento remained at anchor in the bay over a
mile from the mouth of the river, and for two days and nights the Red
Cross remained aboard, unsought, unsummoned from the shore. The
situation became more strained than ever, the only betterment arising
from the fact that now there was more space and the nurses were no
longer crowded three in a room. Mrs. Dr. Wells moved into that recently
vacated by the cavalry commander, and Miss Ray and her now earnest
friend, Miss Porter, were relieved by the desertion of their eldest
sister, who pre-empted a major's stateroom on the upper deck.

Butt stirred up a new trouble by promptly coming to Miss Ray and bidding
her move out of that stuffy hole below and take Major Horton's quarters,
and bring Miss Porter with her "if that was agreeable."

It would have been, very, but "Miss Ray's head was level," as the purser
put it, and despite the snippy and exasperating conduct of most of the
sisterhood, that wise young woman pointed out to the shipmaster that
theirs was a semi-military organization, and that the senior, Mrs. Dr.
Wells, and one or two veteran nurses should have choice of quarters.

By this time Miss Porter's vehement championship of her charming and
much misjudged friend had excited no little rancor against herself. The
more she proved that they had done Miss Ray injustice, the less they
liked Miss Ray's advocate. It is odd but true that many a woman finds it
far easier to forgive another for being as wicked as she has declared
her to be than for proving herself entirely innocent.

One thing, anyhow, Miss Porter couldn't deny, said the sisterhood,--she
was accepting devoted attentions from Mr. Stuyvesant, and in her
capacity as a Red Cross nurse that was inexcusable.

"Fudge!" said Miss Porter. "If it were you instead of Miss Ray he was in
love with, how long would you let your badge keep him at a dis