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76 out, twenty girls as competent—more competent—she feared, than she. Useful she was becoming, yes—possibly. But the Myrtles—the mothers of the world, were indispensable. So were the Adelaides and Christines—leaders and artists. Therefore in her letters to the family Constance avoided any allusion to the shapes and figures forming upon the plate of her life, in the great soul-developing room of the war. If the family could not discern them for themselves, she would not point them out!

In her letters home she was as gay and self-ridiculing as ever. Her communications continually poked fun at herself, and held up to scorn any event or mishap in which she appeared at a disadvantage. The girls, Christine and Adelaide and Maude, always enjoyed laughing with her at herself. She was apologetic about a report that had reached them as to her calm behavior during her first air-raid.

"I didn't feel calm, and if it hadn't been for automobile trouble, and a very sick baby on the back seat, you'd have heard of me scuttling fast for the first cellar. As it was, the best chance we had of getting through alive, it seemed to me, was to postpone my teeth-chattering for half-an-hour, whisper 'oats' quick into the ear of my balky horse, and gallop along as speedily as possible.