Hospital Corridors by Mary Burchell Read Free Book Online Page A

apartments known as the Pavilion.
    Having (as she obviously considered it) put Madeline thoroughly in her place, Miss Ardingley made all her explanations briefly, unemotionally and clearly. As she showed Madeline ward kitchens and private rooms and treatment rooms, and even paused to introduce her to one or two of the nurses at present on duty, there was nothing in her manner to suggest that she had any feelings about her new member of staff, one way or the other. But Madeline knew perfectly well that the older woman had been mortally affronted by the encounter in the corridor, when Dr. Lanyon had had only a brief word for herself, but a friendly, amused greeting for the insignificant newcomer.
    And yet it had been so nice to see him, and to be greeted almost indulgently!
    The tour of inspection and explanation was over at last, and Madeline could only hope that she had grasped enough to acquit herself creditably the next morning. Miss Ardingley accompanied her to the swing doors once more and then dismissed her with a brief, not very convincingly expressed hope that she would settle down satisfactorily in her new surroundings.
    Madeline returned to her own room, thoughtful and a little depressed, and she was delighted when, almost immediately, there was a knock on her door and Eileen put her head in.
    “Tea or cocoa?” she enquired hospitably. “We’re just making hot drinks in the kitchen along the passage.”
    “Tea, please. Can I come and help?”
    “If you like.”
    So Madeline joined the two or three nurses who were making hot drinks and sharing biscuits and gossip in the small, well-equipped kitchen at the other end of the passage. More introductions took place, and then Eileen said,
    “How did you get on?”
    “Not too well,” Madeline confessed. At which the other girls looked sympathetic and Eileen explained in rapid parenthesis,
    “Flossie took her for a conducted tour of P.P.P. She’s to go on tomorrow, to help replace Gardiner and Upjohn.”
    “What happened then?” one of the other girls asked, as she whipped some very appetizing-looking cocoa to a froth. “Not much could go wrong, surely, if you weren’t even on duty.”
    “We met Dr. Lanyon—”
    “Is he back?” enquired one or two voices.
    “Yes. He crossed on the same boat as I did, and we spoke once or twice, though I didn’t know until later who he was.”
    “Go on, go on!” exclaimed Eileen impatiently. “What happened when you met him with Flossie? Don’t tell me he recognized you.”
    “Yes, he did. Though I doubt if he would have if she hadn’t stopped him.”
    “How does one stop Dr. Lanyon if he doesn’t wish to notice one?” enquired the girl who was making cocoa.
    “Oh, she slowed up rather and gave him a smile, you know. He stopped and shook hands. But he’d hardly said a dozen words before he noticed me. And as he had no idea I was coming to the Dominion, of course he was so surprised that he stopped whatever he was saying to her—”
    “Oh, la, la!” exclaimed Eileen, rolling her eyes comically.
    “—and spoke to me instead.”
    “But what did he say ?” Eileen wanted to know.
    Madeline made an effort to remember the exact words.
    “He said, ‘Hello! You do have a talent for appearing in unexpected places, don’t you?’ ”
    An extraordinary little silence fell on the other girls in the kitchen, and the cocoa-maker suspended operations altogether.
    “Are you sure that was what he said?” Eileen enquired at last
    “I—yes, I think so. Why not?”
    “It doesn’t sound in the least like Dr. Lanyon.”
    “Something has happened to him while he was in Europe,” suggested a mischievous-looking girl with slanting dark eyes.
    “Oh, Ruth! You mean he may have got married?” Eileen said.
    “Or fallen in love. It would have a humanizing effect.”
    “Did he seem married or attached to anyone special when you met him on board?” Eileen enquired of Madeline.
    “I’m sure he wasn’t married,”