Betty, the eldest of her step-children, was her favourite, and she had
also been deeply attached to Betty's twin-brother, George. The two had
been alike in many ways, though Betty was very feminine and George
essentially masculine, and each of them had possessed those special
human attributes which only War seems to bring to full fruition.
George had been out in France seven months when he had been killed at
Beaumont Hamel, and he had already won a bar to his Military Cross by an
action which in any other campaign would have given him the Victoria
Cross. As for Betty, she had shown herself extraordinarily brave, cool,
and resourceful when after doing some heavy home war work, she had gone
out with one of the units of the Scottish Women's Hospital.
But Janet Tosswill admired and loved the girl more than ever since
Betty had come back, from what had perforce been a full and exciting
life, to take up the dull, everyday routine existence at Old Place where,
what with a bad investment, high prices, and the sudden leap in the
income-tax, from living pleasantly at ease they had become most
unpleasantly poor.
Jack, who came next to Betty, though a long way after, and who had just
missed being in the war, was a very different type of young Englishman
from what George had been.
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