“Yes; but I’m different.  Don’t you see?” retorted Dot, sadly.  “I’ve got no Mike.  Your work is to help Mike be a great actor, but I’ve got no one to help be anything.  You may be sure I wouldn’t complain of being idle if I had.  I think you’re a bit forgetful sometimes how happy you are.”

“Poor old Dot! you needn’t talk as if you’re such a desperate old maid,—­you’re not twenty yet.  And I’m sure it’s a good thing for you that you haven’t got any of the young men about here—­to help be aldermen!  Wait till you come and stay with us in London, then you’ll soon find some one to work for, as you call it.”

“I don’t know,” said Dot, thoughtfully; “somehow I think I shall never marry.”

“I suppose you mean you’d rather be a nun or something serious of that sort.”

“Well, to tell the truth, I have been thinking lately if perhaps I couldn’t do something,—­perhaps go into a hospital, or something of that sort.”

“Oh, nonsense, Dot!  Think of all the horrible, dirty people you’d have to attend to.  Ugh!”

“Christ didn’t think of that when He washed the feet of His disciples,” said little Dot, sententiously.

“Why, Dot, how dreadfully religious you’re getting!  You want a good shaking!  Besides, isn’t it a little impious to imply that the apostles were horrible, dirty people?”

“You know what I meant,” said Dot, flushing.

“Yes, of course, dear; and I think I know where you’ve been.  You’ve been to see that dear Sister Agatha.”

“You admit she’s a dear?”

“Of course I do; but I don’t know whether she’s quite good for you.”

“If you’d only seen her among the poor little children the other day, how beautiful and how happy she looked, you might have thought differently,” said Dot.

“Oh, yes, dear; but then you mustn’t forget that her point of view is different.  She’s renounced the world; she’s one of those women,” Esther couldn’t resist adding, maliciously, “who’ve given up hope of man, and so have set all their hopes on God.”

“Esther, that’s unworthy of you—­though what if it is as you say, is it so great a failure after all to dedicate one’s self to God rather than to one little individual man?”

“Oh, come,” said Esther, rather wilfully misunderstanding, and suddenly flushing up, “Mike is not so little as all that!”

“Why, you goose, how earthly you are!  I never thought of dear Mike—­though it would have served you right for saying such a mean thing about Sister Agatha.”

“Forgive me.  I know it was mean, but I couldn’t resist it.  And it is true, you’ll admit, of some of those pious women, though I withdraw it about Sister Agatha.”

“Of course I couldn’t be a sister like Sister Agatha,” said Dot, “without being a Catholic as well; but I might be a nurse at one of the ordinary hospitals.”

“It would be dreadfully hard work!” said Esther.