structions
from Washington, only those nurses and attendants recognized and
employed by the general government could be permitted to occupy quarters
or walk the wards about the hospitals. It was bitter to find her
criticisms and suggestions set at naught by "impudent young quacks," as
she called the delighted doctors of the reserve hospitals, to see the
sisterhood of the Red Cross presently clothed with the purple of
authority as well as white caps and aprons, while she and, through her,
the P. D. A.'s were denied the privilege of stirring up the patients and
overhauling the storerooms. Then in her wrath Miss Perkins unbosomed
herself to the press correspondents, a few of whom, seeking sensation,
as demanded by their papers, took her seriously and told tremendous
tales of the brutal neglect of our sick and wounded boys in hospital, of
doctors and nurses in wild debauch on the choice wines and liquors sent
for the sole use of the sick and wounded by such patriotic societies as
the P. D. A.'s, and hinting at other and worse debaucheries (which she
blushed to name), and involved in which were prominent officers and
favorite members of a rival society "which shall be as nameless as it is
shameless." All this had Miss Perkins accomplished within the first
eight days of her sojourn, and by way of Hong-Kong the unexpurgated
edition of her romance, thrown out by the conscienceless censor at
head-quarters, eventually found its way to the United States. It was
while in this uncharitable frame of mind that Miss Perkins caught sight
of the little procession up the Santa Lucia when Maidie was transferred
from ship to shore, and the refusal of the best looking of the "impudent
young quacks" to permit her to see his patient that afternoon augmented
her sense of indignity and wrong. Miss Ray herself went down in the
black book of the P. D. A.'s forthwith.

But all this time the officials remained in blissful ignorance of the
tremendous nature of the charges laid at their door by this much injured
woman, and Maidie Ray, while duly informed of the frequent calls and
kind inquiries of many an officer, and permitted of late to welcome
Sandy for little talks, had been mercifully spared the infliction of the
personal visitation thrice attempted by her fellow-traveller on the
train. That awful voice, however, uplifted, as was the habit of the
vice-president when aroused, could not fail to reach the sick-room, and
when convalescence came and M