cause I once got measles there. No, I'm expected to sit with folded hands until some young man comes along and marries me. Isn't it extraordinary, in this day and age?"
Chip was still speechless.
"And I'll go on like this till I die, I suppose, or marry somebody out of sheer boredom. And I keep asking myself what I ought to do. What would some one else do in my place? Should I simply walk out of the house, and try to live my own life? But where would I go, and what would I do? I've no training except nursing, and I should hate ordinary, peace-time nursing. And would it be fair to my family, who after all have spent a great deal of money on me? And each year I think, 'Next year is sure to be different,' but it isn't. It's exactly the same, or worse, and I'm a year older and have accomplished nothing. If it had been my lot to live in the country, I expect I would have hunted, or perhaps kept a lot of dogs, or looked after a garden. But as it is . . ."
She broke off. Captain Stevens descended on them to ask her to dance again, but she shook her head.
"I'm not a bit in the mood for it to-night.
