III


WAR WORK

Mrs. Dobson, though short and portly, carries her fifty-five years with
buoyancy. She is a good-natured woman, with purple cheeks, a wide mouth,
and a small nose; one connects something indefinable in her appearance
with church on Sundays, so that one learns without surprise that she
is a strict Anglican. She lives in the neighbourhood of Cadogan Square,
and has five daughters, of whom two are married, to a well-known surgeon
and a minor canon respectively. The beauty of the family is Joan, who
plays the piano and is considered intellectual and artistic. She spent a
year at the Conservatoire in Brussels, and often uses French words in
conversation. Effie, the youngest, is an adept at games, and rather
alarms her mother by her habit of using slang expressions and the
shortness of her skirts.

Soon after the beginning of the War, Lady Whigham having discontinued her
days at home, Mrs. Dobson gave up hers, and as the other ladies in her
circle followed suit, her chief occupation was gone.

Of course, like her friend Lady Whigham, she joined several committees,
but she was rather disappointed to find the meetings less sociable than
she expected. What Mrs. Dobson likes is a friendly, chat over a cup of
tea; when you sit formally round a green table, you never seem to get to
know any one properly.