At last she began to grow a little restless under her rather aimless life, and one day she said to her pastor, Mr. Wentworth, “I want a career—­isn’t that what you call it?  I’m tired of being a sewing-woman, and soon I shall be a wrinkled spinster.  Isn’t there something retired and quiet which a girl with no more brains and knowledge than I have can do?”

“Yes,” he said gravely; “make a home for Roger.”

She shook her head.  “That is the only thing I can’t do for him,” she replied very sadly.  “God only knows how truly I love him.  I could give him my life, but not the heart of a wife.  I have lost everything except truth to my womanly nature.  I must keep that.  Moreover, I’m too good a friend of Roger’s to marry him.  He deserves the strong first love of a noble woman, and it will come to him some day.  Do you think I could stand before you and God’s altar and promise what is impossible?  No, Mr. Wentworth, Roger has a strength and force of character which will carry him past all this, and when once he sees I have found a calling to which I can devote all my energies, he will gradually become reconciled to the truth, and finally accept a richer happiness than I could ever bring him.”

“You are an odd girl, Mildred, but perhaps you are right.  I’ve learned to have great faith in you.  Well, I know of a career which possibly may suit you.  It would open an almost limitless field of usefulness,” and he told her of the Training School for Nurses in connection with Bellevue Hospital.

The proposition took Mildred’s fancy greatly, and it was arranged that they should visit the institution on the following afternoon.  Roger sighed when he heard of the project, but only remarked patiently, “Anything you wish, Millie.”

“Dear old fellow,” she thought; “he doesn’t know I’m thinking of him more than myself.”

Mildred made her friend Clara Wilson and her brother and sister a long visit the following summer, and in the fall entered on her duties, her zest greatly increased by the prospect of being able before very long to earn enough to give Fred and Minnie a good education.  The first year of her training passed uneventfully away, she bringing to her tasks genuine sympathy for suffering, and unusual aptness and ability.  Her own sorrowful experience made her tender toward the unfortunate ones for whom she cared, and her words and manner brought balm and healing to many sad hearts that were far beyond the skill of the hospital surgeons.

During the first half of the second year, in accordance with the custom of the School, she responded to calls from wealthy families wherein there were cases of such serious illness as to require the services of a trained nurse, and in each instance she so won the confidence of the attending physician and the affection of the family as to make them personal friends.  Her beautiful face often attracted to her not a little attention, but she was found to be as unapproachable as a Sister of Charity.  Roger patiently waited, and filled the long months with unremitting toil.