_Shoals_
DURING the thirty odd years of her life, Sonya Valesky, now Mrs. David
Clark, had been through many and varied adventures; some of them, in her
young womanhood in Russia, had been tragic, others merely difficult. But
after a few days in Luxemburg, amid the effort to establish the
temporary Red Cross hospital, Sonya believed that she had rarely
suffered a more trying interlude.
It was not the actual work of the hospital arrangements or the care of
the sick. Of the first Miss Blackstone took charge and she was eminently
capable; for the second Dr. Hugh Raymond was responsible. Both of them
had able assistants. The upper part of the house was set apart for the
care of the officers and soldiers suffering from influenza, and there
were about twenty cases; the second floor was reserved as sleeping
quarters for the staff with a few extra rooms for patients who were ill
and in need of attention from other causes so they should not be exposed
to contagion. On the lower floor was a reception room, dining room and
kitchen, with the drawing room for convalescents.
But as usual Sonya Clark's task was looking after the Red Cross nurses,
seeing not only that they were in good health, but as happy and
contented as possible, giving their best service and in little danger of
breakers ahead.
Nevertheless, within forty-eight hours after the passing of the American
troops through Luxemburg, it appeared to Sonya that some unexpected
change had taken place in her group of Red Cross nurses.
What they were actually ordered to do they did in a fairly dutiful
fashion, but the old enthusiasm, the old passionate desire for service
had vanished. Among the entire group of nurses a relaxation of
discipline had taken place. The excitement of their journey, the
knowledge that the war had ended in the allied victory, a natural
desire for pleasure after so long a strain, apparently possessed them
alike, except Nora Jamison who was comparatively new to the work, and
seemed in every way an unusual girl.
Frankly Bianca Zoli confessed to Sonya, not long after their arrival in
Luxemburg, that she was weary of the endless waiting upon the nurses and
patients and needed a short rest. And Sonya agreed that this was true.
Bianca was younger than any member of their Red Cross unit and had been
faithful and untiring in her devotion for many months during the final
allied struggle for victory. Moreover, Bianca also appeared slightly
depressed and Sonya wisely guessed this was partly due to the long
separation from Carlo Navara, which Bianca must see was inevitable. With
his regiment Carlo was moving toward the Rhine and nothing was apt to be
less in his mind for the time being than his friendship for the young
girl whom he undoubtedly regarded only in a semi-brotherly spirit
composed of indifference and affection.
Since the greater part of the nursing at the temporary hospital in
Luxemburg was the care of the soldiers who were ill with influenza, and
feeling that Bianca was not altogether in the right state of health to
battle with the contagion, Sonya requested Miss Blackstone to permit her
to have a half holiday, doing no work that was not voluntary.
But with Nona Davis and Mildred Thornton, the two Red Cross nurses who
had given the most valuable personal service, since the outbreak of the
war, the situation was more serious and far more difficult to meet.
They did not neglect their duties, this would have been impossible to
either of them, and yet in a way it was plain that they were no longer
wholly absorbed by them and to use an old expression, their hearts were
no longer in what they were doing.
Yet Sonya understood; both girls were engaged to be married to young
American officers who were at present in the United States. With the
signing of the armistice they had hoped to return home. It was possible
they had made a mistake in agreeing to Dr. Clark's request that they
remain for a time longer in Europe, forming a part of his Red Cross
unit, who were to care for the soldiers of the American Army of
Occupation.
With Mildred Thornton the engagement was comparatively recent. During
the latter part of July she had nursed through a dangerous illness,
following a wound, an American lieutenant[A] who, together with Carlo
Navara, had crossed into the German lines, securing important secret
information, afterwards invaluable to Marshal Foch.
Of longer standing was Nona Davis's romance, which had not been of such
plain sailing. In the early months after the entry of the United States
into the world war, in an American camp in France, she had met and
renewed an acquaintance with Lieutenant John Martin which had begun as
children years before in the old city of Charleston, South Carolina.
Soon after Lieutenant Martin had declared his affection, but believing
him arrogant and domineering, Nona had not at that time returned his
love.
Later, meeting again upon a United States hospital ship, coming back
from France, Nona had discovered Lieutenant Martin, now Captain Martin,
blinded through a gallant action on the battlefields of France.
It was then that their former positions were reversed, for Captain
Martin would not accept a devotion which he believed born of pity and
declined marrying Nona unless his sight were restored. A short time
before a letter from New York announced that after an operation, Captain
Martin had the right to believe his sight would be fully regained.
Therefore would Nona marry him as soon as it could be arranged? And
Nona's answer had been to cable, "Yes."[B]
However, both Mildred Thornton and Nona Davis having already sacrificed
so much to their four years of Red Cross service in Europe, had decided
to make this ultimate sacrifice in the postponing of their happiness.
Yet here during the temporary pause of their Red Cross unit in
Luxemburg, Sonya was able to see that the two girls were finding their
self-surrender harder to accept bravely than they had anticipated.
Whenever it was possible without neglecting their duties they were apt
to wander off for mutual sympathy and confidences. Even Sonya found
herself often ignored or forgotten. Sometimes she feared that they might
harbor a slight resentment, because it was her husband, Dr. David Clark,
who had asked the personal sacrifice.
With two other of her Red Cross nurses Sonya had neither much sympathy
nor understanding. Ruth Carroll had never interested her particularly;
she was a large, quiet girl, ordinarily a dutiful and fairly reliable
nurse, but without special gifts, although as a matter of fact, Dr.
Clark had not shared in his wife's disparaging opinion.
However, Sonya knew herself to be prejudiced and not so much by Ruth
herself as by reason of her close friendship with Theodosia Thompson and
the younger girl's undoubted influence upon her.
Thea had been right in her supposition that Mrs. Clark neither liked nor
trusted her particularly, although Sonya herself had scarcely been aware
of her own point of view until after the beginning of the journey of her
Red Cross unit toward Germany. Since then Sonya was not at all sure that
Thea might not prove an uncomfortable if not an actually mischievous
influence.
One of Dr. Clark's old students at a prominent New York Medical
University and afterwards his assistant, Dr. Hugh Raymond, was a young
physician in whom the older man had extraordinary confidence and for
whom he hoped great things. In the Red Cross hospital near
Chateau-Thierry he had done splendid and untiring work. But both Sonya
and her husband had often smiled over the young doctor's apparent
dislike of women and girls. Not even with Sonya herself had he been
willing to be more than coldly friendly.
Yet since the movement of their unit toward the Rhine, Sonya had noticed
an odd change in him. At first it had appeared as if Thea's attempts to
make him show an interest in her had simply annoyed him. Later she
seemed to provoke him. Recently Sonya believed Thea was having a marked
effect upon him, sometimes aggravating and at other times pleasing him.
And although Sonya believed she understood human nature, she also
realized that nothing would irritate her husband more profoundly than to
discover any kind of personal feeling existing between his nurses and
physicians. During all the Red Cross work in Europe from this
complication they had been singularly free.
Moreover, Sonya did not consider that Theodosia Thompson was seriously
interested in Dr. Raymond. It was her personal opinion that Thea simply
desired admiration and attention, because her nature was restless and
dissatisfied.
And it was with the two nurses, Ruth Carroll and Theodosia Thompson,
that Sonya had her first real grievance since the beginning of her Red
Cross work.
Among the patients who had been brought to the temporary Luxemburg
hospital was Major James Hersey, who had been in command of a battalion
near Chateau-Thierry and had been taken ill with influenza along the
route of the march toward Germany.
Perhaps Major Jimmie had been longing too ardently to accompany his
picked troops to the left bank of the Rhine; however, he was at present
pretty seriously ill.
All day Sonya had been caring for him and at about four o'clock in the
afternoon she was beginning to feel that she was growing too tired to be
left alone. Major Hersey was delirious and already it was long past the
hour when Theodosia Thompson had been expected to relieve her. Yet she
continued to wait patiently, not daring to leave her charge even for a
moment.
Four o'clock passed and then five and no one entered the sick room, not
even one of the Red Cross physicians, and Sonya had been expecting a
call from Dr. Raymond some time during the afternoon.
At a little after five, Miss Blackstone stepped in unannounced. She was
the superintendent of the hospital and Sonya discovered her looking
both worried and worn. She was a large, plain, middle-aged woman who had
worked with Dr. Clark for a number of years before his marriage to
Sonya, and although she and Sonya had not liked each other in the early
days of their acquaintance, they had become far more friendly since.
"I am more sorry than I can say, Mrs. Clark, not to have sent some one
in to help you, but the most amazing thing has happened. Just after
lunch Miss Thompson and Miss Carroll asked permission to take a short
motor ride with Dr. Raymond and Dr. Mendel. Dr. Raymond assured me
himself that they would not be gone over an hour. It has been much
nearer three hours and I hardly know what to do. Some accident must have
occurred. What do you think we should do?"
Sonya shrugged her shoulders.
"Do? Why nothing but wait. I have an idea nothing has happened beyond
the fact that they have forgotten their responsibilities."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: See Red Cross Girls with United States Marines.]
[Footnote B: See Red Cross Girls Afloat with the Flag.]