Page:Maud Howe - Atlanta in the South.djvu/292

 by the severity of their black robes; and it is only human for women, young or old, to prefer tending a young man full of grace and beauty, to waiting on some snuffy, cross old fellow, or a fretful, nervous woman. Robert afterwards avowed that had it not been for a certain image which always hovered about him, he should have fallen helplessly in love with the sweet, stately Sister Gabrielle. They were very pleasant, those days of convalescence; his friends all came to see him, even General Ruysdale, who before his illness had treated him with a certain reserve and caution. Bouton de Rose came at least once a day, with all the social news of the hour, which he gathered as quickly and naturally as a bee gathers honey. The Count, indeed, felt as if he had found a second home in the Crescent City. It is a wonderfully hospitable place, New Orleans, and the stranger who after a three months' residence there does not feel himself part and parcel of its society, linked to it by sympathy and good-will, must be a curmudgeon indeed.

Robert heard of Philip's departure for Thebes with a divided feeling. He shuddered to think of the work that his friend had undertaken, and yet felt that it was not so hard to be chained to the hospital when there was no rival near to Margaret. He sent half of his quarter's income