Several days slipped by, during which she heard nothing further of the
Cliffords. Nor indeed did she think about them very much, there being
more vital matters to occupy her attention. Esther was but mortal.
There was a particular chestnut-coloured crêpe-de-Chine jumper in a
shop-window along the Croisette that drew her like a magnet--her
colour, and what a background for her golden amber beads, brought her
recently by a patient from Peking. Should she give way to the
extravagance, or ought she to save her money? The problem was a
weighty one. Besides this, there was a young Italian, merry and
good-mannered, whom she had met at her hotel, and who was beseeching
her to come out one evening and dance. What ought she to say to him?
Her soul longed for gaiety--Italians were good dancers, as a rule.
There was, moreover, a letter from New York from the devoted doctor who
wanted to marry her, a long letter, fraught with complete understanding
and fidelity which left her cold, but gave her something to think
about. On the whole she had quite enough to occupy her idle thoughts.
Yet now and again she recalled the sudden liking she had felt for Miss
Clifford, and at these moments she wondered what was happening to the
old cotton manufacturer up there in La Californie. She knew the doctor
called twice daily. She decided to question him.
"Doctor, what happened to Sir Charles Clifford?"
"Happened?"
The doctor frowned into a test-tube and waited for her to explain.
"I mean, if he is ill, what has he got?"
"Oh, typhoid fever," replied the doctor indifferently, intent on his
experiment.
"So it was typhoid after all!" Esther exclaimed, conscious of a certain
regret.
He lowered the tube and slowly levelled his small dull eyes upon her.
Without knowing in the least why, she felt uncomfortable.
"Why do you say 'after all'?"
"I merely meant that his sister told me she was afraid it might be
that. One of their housemaids had it."
"Yes, that is so. There's enough of it about."
She wanted to inquire how the old man was, but she could not bring
herself to continue the subject with a person who somehow made her feel
that her questions were superfluous, if not actually impertinent. She
watched him fit a slide into his huge microscope, entirely absorbed by
the matter in hand. Patients as human beings meant nothing to him.
Two days later the thing occurred which altered her whole mode of life.
She was aware that something had happened when she arrived as usual in
the morning, for Jacques, who met her in the hall, had a somewhat
mysterious and wholly ironical manner.
"Ah, mademoiselle, what have I told you? Did I not say it would be so?"
"Say what? What do you mean?"
"Did I not say he was what you call fed up?"
"Jacques, what are you talking about?"
He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
"Go in there; you will soon know. He is waiting to speak to you."
Considerably puzzled, she tapped on the consulting-room door and was
bidden to come in. As she did so, the doctor looked up from what
seemed an unusual confusion on his desk, and as his gaze encountered
hers she thought that the dull heaviness of his demeanour was oddly
lightened by a spark of something she could not define.
"Ah, Miss Rowe, you see me about to make a rather sudden change. The
fact is I have been persuaded to put aside my practice for a short
time--I can't say exactly how long it will be--and during the interval
to act as private physician to Sir Charles Clifford."
Frankly taken by surprise, Esther could at first only exclaim, "No,
really!" and wait for him to go on. Whatever had induced him to do
this? She reflected that the Cliffords must have offered him a good
deal of money.
"I have arranged with a colleague to take over my practice for the next
few weeks," the doctor continued, busy sorting papers as he spoke.
"Although naturally my patients can please themselves about going to
him. He is a competent man. Needless to say Sir Charles will make it
worth my while, and for the rest I badly need a holiday. The change
will do me good."
So this was why he looked more cheerful. Even a machine needs a rest
once in a while. Then Esther thought of that other work of his, the
research of which he seemed never to tire.
"What about your experiments?" she ventured.
"I shall be able to snatch a couple of hours now and then," he replied.
"But of course I must resign myself to giving up really serious work in
the laboratory until the case is finished. It is regrettable, for, as
you know, I am in the midst of that series of tests in regard to the
anti-toxin for tetanus. Every week I lose increases the chance of some
other fellow's finding it; there are a number of experimenters hot on
the trail. However, it can't be helped." He sighed and added to
himself, "You can't have it both ways."
It now occurred to Esther to inquire how this alteration of plans
affected her.
"Then I suppose, doctor, you won't be wanting me for the next month or
so?"
"I was coming to that. No, I shall not; and I don't know that it would
be worth my while to pay you to stay on while I have nothing for you to
do."
"Oh, no, naturally. I understand."
"If, however, you still wish to remain in Cannes, I have an offer to
make you. There is an English nurse looking after Sir Charles, but he
is going to require another. Perhaps you'd care to take on the job of
day-nurse to him?"
It was a second surprise.
"Oh! Would they like me to come?"
"It was Miss Clifford's suggestion. I believe from what she said to me
she took a liking to you when she saw you here the other day."
The detached tone in which he made this observation implied that such a
thing as taking a liking to a person did certainly exist and therefore
must be scientifically recognised, incredible as it might appear.
The image of the simple, friendly eyed, north-country woman flashed
across Esther's mental vision, obscuring the less comprehensible figure
of her sister-in-law. She thought for a moment.
"Why, yes, if you like, I'll be glad to come," she agreed.
The doctor raised a corrective hand. "It's if _you_ like," he amended.
"I can get another nurse from the British Nursing Home in an hour's
time, it is all the same to me. If you come, however, they will pay
you at the rate usual in your country--more than an English nurse gets,
as you know."
"I wasn't thinking of the money," declared Esther hastily and with
truth. "I was only wondering ... but it doesn't matter. I'll come.
When do you want me?"
"At once. How soon can you be ready?"
"Oh, I can be ready in an hour or so. I've only to pack my things and
settle my hotel bill."
"Very well, try to get to the house before lunch. I will telephone to
say you are coming. Here is the address."
He scrawled it on a slip of paper and handed it to her, instantly
turning his whole attention to something else in the way he had when a
matter was concluded. It was exactly like shutting a door in one's
face, she thought with rueful amusement. In another minute she had
left the house and was on her way back to her hotel.
In the little lobby she met Miss Paull, just drawing on a pair of black
gloves preparatory to setting off on a ramble.
"And what are you doing here at this hour?" she greeted Esther
cheerfully, curiously beaming in every line of her rather noble face.
Esther explained hurriedly.
"How extremely odd! The very people we were discussing the other day.
And you say your doctor is giving up his entire practice to devote
himself to Sir Charles? They _must_ have money to burn. I wonder what
you will think of them. I wonder if the son is there? Such a
nice-looking boy he was. I used to see him often. And the beautiful
French wife--you must tell me what she is like, to know, that is. Of
course she _looks_ like something on the films, doesn't she?"
Esther assented, anxious to get away.
"I should like to know what she was doing in that dirty little
jeweller's shop, going into the back room and all," mused the spinster
regretfully. "Well--good luck to you!"
Esther smiled to herself as she got into the tiny lift. Miss Paull
extracted so much enjoyment out of life from inventing mysteries out of
simple things. What a pity she could not be in her, Esther's, place!
What capital she would have made out of her opportunities!
It was with a slight feeling of excitement that two hours later she
toiled in a creaking taxi up to the steep streets of Cannes, her
hat-box and neat dressing-bag reposing on the seat beside her, her
small trunk in front. What luck, she reflected, to have brought her
uniforms along! She had not really thought she would need them. A
thin rain fell, but the sky showed signs of breaking, and the raindrops
sparkled on the thick green foliage of the trees and added beauty to
the feathery sprays of mimosa wherever it raised its yellow plumage.
The town left behind, villa after villa came into view, many
half-hidden in greenery. The drive seemed a longish one, but of course
a good car would have done it in half the time....
How strange to think that the very first woman who had in any way
impressed her in Cannes should now be employing her to nurse her
husband! It was a good thing Lady Clifford had never recognised her;
no doubt if she had done so she would have thought twice about engaging
her services.
Ah, here it was, the Villa Firenze--a spacious, even imposing mansion
of pinkish brick, the front covered in wistaria. Acacias shut off the
well-kept garden from the road and bordered the drive, a circular one,
the approach terminating in wide, shallow stone steps, flanked by
carved stone baskets of fruit. While she was paying the taxi, the door
opened and a manservant, English, with sparse grey hair and a pleasant
wooden face, came out and took her bag and hat-box.
"I daresay you'll be wanting to go straight to your room, miss?" he
suggested.
"Yes, thank you."
She found herself in a large, irregular entrance hall with a sweep of
stairs facing her. On the left was a high Gothic chimney-piece of grey
stone, the fireplace banked with azaleas, flame-coloured and rose.
There were a few tall Stuart chairs and a carved oak coffer. The long
windows were curtained with old needlework. She followed the butler up
the carpeted stairs and from a broad upper hall along a passage towards
the back of the house, meeting no one on the way but a housemaid.
The room into which she was shown had the charm of harmonious
simplicity. The plain furniture was painted black, outlined in mauve;
the curtains and covers were of Toile de Jouy in one of those
delightful reproductions of an eighteenth-century pattern, showing a
dozen scenes of pastoral life, mauve on a white ground. The carpet was
black, and on the mantelpiece was a black Wedgwood bowl filled with
anemones, placed between crystal candlesticks.
"Your box will be up directly, miss," the butler said as he left her.
She went to the window and looked out over wet green lawns with hedges
and oleanders. Rain dripped from the shrubs, but a shaft of watery
sunlight had broken through the clouds. She breathed in the fragrance
of the garden for several moments, then, her trunk arriving, set
herself to work to unpack the belongings so recently stowed away. This
done, she quickly changed into one of her pale buff uniforms with its
accompanying snowy apron, stiff cuffs and coif--an uncompromising
costume at the best of times, yet she had managed to have hers well-cut
and of a becoming colour, which was the most that one could do.
As she was putting the final touches to her attire there was a tap on
the door and the maid she had seen in the passage entered. She was a
wholesome-looking Scotch girl with a strong Glasgow accent, and she
smiled on Esther in a friendly way.
"If you please, nurse, Miss Clifford is wanting to see you when you've
done dressing. She said there was no pertickler hurry."
"I'll come at once," said Esther promptly, and followed her out of the
room, back to the central landing, and a few yards along another
hallway to the right. Here, in an open doorway, Miss Clifford was
standing. At once Esther noticed in her appearance a marked
alteration; her strong colour had faded and she looked tired and
distressed. However, she smiled in a welcoming fashion and extended
her hand as to a friend.
"Ah, I am glad you could come, Miss Rowe," she exclaimed with an air of
relief. "It was my first thought when Dr. Sartorius consented to come
to us. I felt I should so like to have you look after my brother."
She drew Esther into her room, which was comfortable and bright in a
solid, old-fashioned style.
"So you see," she said, closing the door and motioning Esther towards a
large easy chair by the fireplace, "my fears were well-grounded after
all. He has got typhoid--he had it then."