Once Lady Anstruthers had been away, once a letter had seemingly failed to reach her, once her children had had scarlet fever and the orders of the physicians in attendance had been stringent in regard to visitors, even relatives who did not fear contagion.
"If she had been living in New York and her children had been ill I should have been with her all the time," poor Mrs.Vanderpoel had said with tears.

"Rosy's changed awfully, somehow.

Her letters don't sound a bit like she used to be.

It seems as if she just doesn't care to see her mother and father." Betty had frowned a good deal and thought intensely in secret.

She did not believe that Rosy was ashamed of her relations.