August noon
`` I will put you in a strait-jacket ! I promise you that . '' Electra was agreeably surprised at the unusual warmth with which Irene received her some hours later , but little suspected why the lips lingered in their pressure of hers , or understood the wistful tenderness of the eyes which dwelt so fondly on her face . The icy wall of reserve had suddenly melted , as if in the breath of an August noon , and dripped silently down among things long past . Russell 's name was casually mentioned more than once , and Electra fell asleep that night wholly unconscious that the torn and crumpled pages of her heart had been thoroughly perused by the woman from whom she was most anxious to conceal the truth . Having engaged a suite of rooms near the hospital , a few days sufficed for preliminary arrangements , and Irene was installed in a ward of the building to which she had requested Dr. Arnold to appoint her . Thus , by different , by devious thorny paths , two sorrowing women emerged upon the broad highway of Duty , and , clasping hands , pressed forward to the divinely appointed goal -- Womanly Usefulness .