"For once, the small section of womankind that I encountered were above and beyond flirtations.
"I don't think," he went on seriously, "that you in England can quite realise what it was, or that a woman in London society can imagine that there can exist a state of things in which dress and appearance are matters which have altogether ceased to engross the female mind.

The white women I saw there were worn and haggard.

No matter what their age, they bore on their faces the impress of terrible hardship, terrible danger, and terrible grief and anxiety.
Few but had lost someone dear to them, many all whom they cared for.

A few had made some pitiful attempt at neatness, but most had lost all thought of self, all care whatever for personal appearance.

There was an anxious look in their eyes that was painful to witness." "I spoke without thinking," the girl said, gravely.