"There, you are better now."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, indeed you are. This has nothing to do with the operation, I
assure you."
"Then, pray, what is it?" This question very sharply, and the patient
moved in her bed in a way that showed very little feebleness.
"Simply hysteria."
"What! Sterricks?"
"Yes, a form of hysterics."
"There!" cried the patient, with a triumphant tone in her voice. "I
knew you didn't know nothing about it. I never had sterricks in my
life."
"Because you have always been a woman in a vigorous state of health.
Latterly you have been brought down rather low."
"'Taint that," said the woman sharply, "it's what's done to me here, and
the shameful neglect. It's horrid; I'm half killed, and then Mr Neil
goes away and leaves me to that horrible old man, and as soon as Mr
Neil's gone, the other leaves me to die."
"I am afraid you are a very foolish woman," said the nurse quietly. "I
can assure you that you are getting well fast."
"Oh, yes, I know. And you are as bad as they are. It's shameful!"
"You have been working yourself up to think you are being neglected, but
your troubles are imaginary."
"Oh, yes, I know," cried the woman angrily.
"Pray try and be reasonable," said the nurse, speaking in a voice full
of patient resignation.
"Go on, pray, ma'am. You've all got me down here and are trampling on
me. I'm unreasonable now, am I?"
"I am afraid you are a little," said the nurse, smiling as she
rearranged the bedclothes. "Mr Elthorne went away because he was worn
out with attending the poor people here, and Sir Denton was telegraphed
for to attend some unfortunate gentleman who had met with an accident."
"Then he oughtn't to have gone," cried the woman loudly.
"Pray, hush," said the nurse. "You are hurting yourself and upsetting
the other patients."
"And I say he'd no right to go. My life's as much consequence as
anybody else's life, and it's a shameful piece of neglect. Oh, if I do
live to get away from this 'ateful place, I'll let some of you know.
I'm to be left to die because the doctors are too idle to come and see
me. If I'd only known, you'd never caught me here."
"Hush, hush! Pray be quiet, dear. You are making yourself hot and
feverish."
The nurse laid her cool white hand upon the patient's brow, but she
resented it and thrust it away. "Let me be. I don't want holding down.
It's shameful. It's cruel. Oh, why did I come to this dreadful place?
As for that Sir Denton, or whatever his name is--"
"What about him? Do you want me?" said the gentleman in question, who
had come into the ward and up to the bed unnoticed. "How are you this
morning?--Ah, better."
"No, I'm not, I'm worse, and it's shameful."
"What is?" said the surgeon, smiling.
"For me to be neglected by the doctors and nurses as I am. It's too
bad, it is; and I might have died--no doctor, no nurse."
"Ah, yes; it is very cruel," said Sir Denton. "I have shamefully
neglected my patients here, and as for the conduct of Nurse Elisia to
you, it is almost criminal. You will have to go back home to your own
people and be properly treated. Dreadful places, these hospitals are."
Nurse Elisia looked up at the old surgeon with wondering eyes, as he
took the woman's own tone, but he smiled at her sadly.
"Come with me, I want to talk to you. Poor thing," he said, as they
walked away, "she is in the irritable, weary state of the convalescent.
She is not answerable for what she says. Sorry I was obliged to go, but
the case was urgent. Mr Elthorne's father. A terrible accident. The
spine injured, and paralysis of the lower part of the body."
"Mr Elthorne's father!" cried the nurse, turning pale. "How shocking!"
"Terrible. Mr Elthorne telegraphed for me. It was not necessary, for
he was doing everything possible, and now it is a case of careful
nursing to save the poor fellow's life."
"Nursing?"
"Yes. I have promised Mr Elthorne to send him down the most helpful,
trustworthy nurse I knew, at once."
"Sir Denton," faltered the nurse, with a faint colour rising in her
cheeks.
"It is an exceptional ease, my child, one which calls for all a nurse's
skill and tenderness with, perhaps, as much patience as I have seen you
exercise toward that foolish woman. I am going to ask you to start at
once for Hightoft, and take up this case."
"Sir Denton!" she cried. "Oh! it is impossible."
"Why?"
"My patients here."
"Your place can be filled, just as it would be necessary to fill it if
you were taken ill."
"But I am not ill, Sir Denton, and I am needed here."
"But you are needed there--at this gentleman's house, where the services
of a patient lady like yourself would be invaluable."
"I could not go, Sir Denton; I beg you will not send me."
"It is in a lovely part of the country. It is a charming place, and I
can guarantee for you that the ladies will receive you as their equal--
perhaps as their superior," he added with a meaning smile, which made
her look slightly resentful.
"Really, Sir Denton," she began.
"Forgive me," he said. "It was a slip. I have no wish to pry into your
private life, Nurse Elisia. I am only thankful to have the help and
co-operation of a refined woman in my sad cases here."
"Thank you, Sir Denton, but you must excuse me from this."
"I cannot," he said firmly, "for I feel that it is your duty to go. I
have no hesitation in saying that it is absolutely necessary for you to
have a change, even if you do not have rest, but you will be able to
combine both there."
"Pray send someone else, Sir Denton."
"I know nobody whom I could trust as I would you, Nurse Elisia," he
replied quietly, "and I am quite sure that there is no one in whom Mr
Elthorne would have so much confidence."
He noted the change in the nurse's mobile countenance as he went on
speaking in his quiet way, for she was evidently agitated and trying
hard to conceal it.
"You see it would be so advantageous," he continued. "After a few days
you could set Mr Elthorne at liberty to come back here. Of course, as
you know, the case is one which needs almost wholly a careful nurse's
skill. How soon will you be free to go?"
Like lightning the thoughts flashed through her brain of the position
she would occupy. It was like throwing her constantly in Neil
Elthorne's society, and she shrank from the position almost with horror.
For, of late there had been no disguising from herself the fact that
the young surgeon had, in his quiet way, been more than courteous to
her, and that his manner betokened a something, which on his side was
fast ripening into admiration.
"It is impossible," she thought. "It would be cruelty to him, for he is
sincere and manly. No, I cannot go. It would be a crime. Sir Denton,"
she said hastily, aloud. "You must excuse me from this duty. I cannot
go."
"No," he said firmly, and he took her hand. "I cannot, I will not
excuse you. Once more I tell you that you ought to go; it is your
duty."
"But why?" she cried, rather excitedly.
"Because you--evidently a lady of gentle birth--have set yourself the
task of toiling for your suffering fellow-creatures. Here is one who
may die if you do not go to his help."
"But another would be as efficient."
"I do not know one at the present moment whom I would trust as I would
you; and in addition, the call comes at a time when it is imperative
that you should have rest and change."
"But," she said, with a smile full of perplexity, "that would not be
rest and change."
"Can you not trust me to advise you for your good?" said Sir Denton
gravely.
"Oh, yes, but--"
"That `but' again. Come, nurse, I think you believe that I take great
interest in you."
"Oh, yes, Sir Denton," she said eagerly.
"Then trust me in this. Take my advice. More--oblige me by going. I
am surgeon here, and you are nurse, but it has seemed to me, for some
time past, that we have had a closer intimacy--that of friends. Come,
you will oblige me?"
"It is your wish then, that I should go?"
"Indeed, yes. When will you be ready to start?"
"At once."
"That is good. Then I will telegraph down, so that a carriage may be in
waiting for you at the station. I am sure that Mr Elthorne will see
that you have every comfort and attention. Good-morning. Thanks."
Nurse Elisia stood by the door of the ward, watching the retiring figure
of the old surgeon as he passed down the corridor.
"Is it not weak to have given way?" she said to herself. "Perhaps not
in such a case as this. Mr Elthorne will see that I have every comfort
and attention," she said softly. "Mr Elthorne must be taught that I am
the hospital nurse, sent down there for a special purpose. Mr Elthorne
is weak, and given to follies such as I should not have suspected in so
wise and able a man."
She stood hesitating for a few moments looking toward where Maria Bell
lay, evidently watching her attentively, and her first impulse was to
cross to the woman and to tell her that she would be handed over now to
the charge of another nurse; but, reconsidering the matter, she decided
merely to tell the next nurse in authority that she must take full
charge of the ward, and going down to the matron, she stated that she
would be absent for a time. That evening she was being hurried down by
a fast train, to reach the station within a few minutes of the appointed
time, and she had scarcely stepped on to the platform when a man's voice
made her start with dread lest it should be Neil.
"The nurse for Hightoft?" said the voice; and as she turned she found
that it was only a servant.
"Yes, I am the nurse," she replied.
"Well, here's a carriage for you. Any luggage?"
The man's voice was sharp, and wanting in respect, the ordering of the
carriage for a long night drive having found little favour with coachman
and footman.
"That little black bag, that is all," said the nurse quietly.
"Don't mean to stay long, then," said the man with a laugh, as he took
the little travelling bag, and swung it up on to the foot-board, while
the nurse stood patiently waiting, and without resenting the man's
insolence and indifference as he entered into a conversation with the
coachman before turning and, stepping back, stared hard at the calm,
refined face dimly seen by the feeble station lamps.
"Will you have the goodness to open the carriage door?"
"Eh? Open the door? Of course. Just going to," said the footman
cavalierly, as he snatched open the door and rattled down the steps.
He held out his hand, but she stepped in without his assistance, the
door was banged sharply to, and the handle took some time to turn, as
the man stared in at the visitor, who quietly drew up the window and
sank back in her seat.
"Gives herself airs, does she!" said the footman to himself. "How fond
people who have never been in a carriage before are of making believe
they are used to one. Can't cheat me, my lady. Bet a shilling she has
never been in anything better than a cab or a station-fly before in her
life."
"What are you grumbling about?" said the coachman, as his fellow-servant
climbed up to his side.
"Nothing, only thinking aloud about her ladyship inside. Got in with a
reg'lar toss of her head. There, hit 'em up, Tom, and let's get back.
I don't want to be on this job all night."
"Regular nurse, arn't she?" said the coachman. "Horspittle?"
"Yes, I suppose so. Dressed up like a nun out for a holiday. Why
couldn't they have had a nurse out of the village, or your wife?"
"Ah! Why indeed?" said the coachman sourly. "'Fraid poor people should
make a few shillings too much, I suppose. It's just the same if one of
the horses is bad; we must have the vet to see him, when I could put him
right in a week. It's having the name does it with some people.
Horspittle nurse! A deal, I dare say, she knows."
The ill-usage to which he and his fellow-servants were called upon to
submit claimed both their tongues during the long, dark drive to
Hightoft, while Nurse Elisia sat back in the carriage, dreamy and
thoughtful, watching the lights of the lamps thrown upon hedgerow and
tree as the good pair of horses trotted swiftly back.
It seemed a strange contrast to the glaring, shop-filled streets of
sooty London, this long winding lane with only a long, low whitewashed
cottage seen at intervals. So quiet and calm was it all that there
appeared to be no reason for the rapid action of the nurse's pulses as
they sped onward. But the action was going on, and the occupant of the
carriage felt a strange longing more than once to pull the check string,
and bid the coachman stop and turn back. But she refrained and grew
cooler as they progressed, forcing herself to keep on trying to make out
the landscape, till, in due time, the lodge gates were passed, and the
carriage drawn up at the entrance, where Nurse Elisia descended and
stood beside her little bag till Neil descended and uttered the words
expressing his astonishment at her presence there.