Yet Dulcie was unusually feminine; she had a natural gift for nursing,
for housekeeping, for domesticity. She was not artistic and was as
indifferent to abstractions and to general ideas as the ideal average
woman. She was tactful, sweet, and, she had been called at school,
rather a doormat. Her appearance was distinguished and she was not at
all ordinary. It is far from ordinary, indeed it is very rare, to be the
ideal average woman. She took great interest in detail; she would lie
awake at night thinking about how she would go the next day to a certain
inexpensive shop to get a piece of ribbon for one part of her dress to
match a piece of ribbon in another part--neither of which would ever be
seen by any human being.
Such men as she saw liked and admired her. Her gradual success led her
to being sent abroad to a military hospital. She inspired confidence,
not because she had initiative, but because one knew she would do
exactly as she was told, which is, in itself, a great quality. At
Boulogne she made the acquaintance at once of Aylmer, and of _the coup
de foudre_. She worshipped him at first sight. So she thought herself
fortunate when she was allowed to come back to London with him.
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