The lady in front of him had no such feeling; there was nothing more evident about her than that she did not think of how she appeared or how she was observed.
"You are very good to have come." She spoke with a slight French accent, whether natural or acquired he could not tell.

Then she left that subject, and began at once to tell the story of the plague upon the island--when it began, what efforts she and a few others had made to arrest it, the carelessness and obstinacy with which the greater part of the people had fostered it, its progress.

This was the substance of what she said; but she did not speak of the best efforts as being her own, nor did she call the people stupid and obstinate.

She only said: "They would not have their houses properly cleaned out; they would not wash or burn garments that were infected; they would not use disinfectants, even when we could procure them; they will not yet.

You may say that in this wind-swept country there can be nothing in nature to foster such a disease, nothing in the way the houses are built; but the disease came here on a ship, and it is in the houses of the people that it lingers.