_If this was true, there ought to be another edition of What
Every Young Girl Should Know!_
* * * * *
"What," she demanded, sitting bolt upright in the hospital bed, "has
happened to the medical world? In Italy, they tell me I have an
abdominal tumor. In Paris, it's cancer. And now you fat-heads are
trying to tell me I'm pregnant!"
I stuffed my stethoscope into my jacket pocket and tried to pat her
hand. "Take it easy, Mrs. Caffey--"
"It's _Miss Caffey_, damn you," she said snatching her hand away, "and
better I should have gone to an astrologer!"
[Illustration]
"See here, now," I said, letting a stern note enter my voice. "You
came here requesting a verification of the malignancy of this
growth. Our discovery of a six month foetus is a fact, not an
accusation."
"Look, Buster, I'm a thirty-six-year-old spinster. Like the joke goes,
I haven't been married _or anything_. Also, I knew about the birds and
the bees before you were emptying bedpans. Now will you get off this
subject of babies and find out whether it's safe for me to start any
continued stories?"
* * * * *
Such protestations from unmarried mothers were not uncommon, but Sara
Caffey's cold convictions were unshakable. She sank back into her
seven satin pillows and sighed mightily. Her wide-spaced, intelligent
eyes glared at me from a handsome, if somewhat overly strong, face.
Creamy white shoulders swept gracefully into gradually darkening neck
skin and frankly tanned cheeks and broad forehead. Her straight,
slender nose was sunburned.
As resident physician for over fifteen years, I had learned patience
in these matters. But the thought that this lovely creature expected
me to believe that she was an unfulfilled old maid got under my skin,
particularly under the circumstances.
"Miss Caffey, I am a physician, not a philosopher. Just the same,
permit me to congratulate you on your virginity."
"Thanks," she said, in a voice not untinged with pride.
"However," I went on, "in spite of certain contra-indications and
irregularities of symptoms such as the absence of morning sickness and
the like, I would like to enlist your cooperation in delivering
yourself of an infant within the next three months."
"Dr. Foley, please understand!" She threw her hands apart in despair.
"I love children. I would have an acre of them if I were married, or
even in the mood for any other alliance. But men just don't fit my
frame of reference. And regardless of what kind of a damned fool I may
make of myself in the future, I haven't, to date! Doctor, the kind of
cooperation you ask for hasn't been known for two thousand years."
I tried another tack. "Well, since you arrived without a medical
history on your condition, would you tell us the name of your last
doctor so we may write for a transcript?"
"Phillipe Sansome, in Paris."
"The surgeon?"
She nodded. "And don't try to explain that he misdiagnosed because
he's hungry for surgical fees. He didn't plan to operate. In fact,
that's why I left. He was trying some new cure of his own that didn't
set well with the staff there, and they got into such a squabble I
figured I'd better remove the cause of it all before the dear old man
lost his license."
While she was speaking, I casually drew back the covers and exposed
her slightly swollen abdomen. It, too, had a surprising coat of tan. I
donned my stethoscope, moved the diaphragm around until I had what I
wanted, and held it there.
"Yes, I know of Dr. Sansome," I told her. "We shall send a wire at
once for your case record. Helps, you know. Now, if you will just slip
these into your ears--"
She let me hang the stethoscope around her neck, and even brushed back
her shining black hair so I could adjust the ear-pieces for her.
"If Doctor Sansome had heard that," I said, "he would have changed his
mind."
She listened intently to the quick, light, foetal heartbeat for over a
minute, and gradually a faraway gleam lighted her eyes. "Oh if you
were only right," she said softly, "Here I've chased stories all over
the globe half my life, and I'd have the biggest story since the flood
right here in my own tummy!"