Hospital Corridors by Mary Burchell Read Free Book Online Page B

Madeline said, and felt extremely uncomfortable. It seemed almost an intrusion on his privacy to know about him and Clarissa.
    “Perhaps,” said the girl called Ruth, “it was you who had the humanizing influence on him.”
    But Madeline said, “Oh, no!” so quickly and so emphatically that the others all laughed.
    “Well, no one has had a humanizing influence on Flossie,” Eileen said drolly. “I suppose she was furious at being given the brush-off for a newcomer?”
    “She seemed to think I’d put myself forward quite unpardonably,” Madeline confessed ruefully. “It was all very unfortunate.”
    “But rather gratifying to be greeted that way by Dr. Lanyon, surely?” Ruth said. “I should reckon that worth a few acid drops from Flossie.”
    Madeline laughed and flushed a little.
    “I suppose that’s true. But if I’m to work under FI—Miss Ardingley during my first weeks, I’d rather not be in her bad books right from the beginning.”
    “You could hardly help being so, you know,” Ruth said composedly. “Try not to mind too much, but I’m afraid you are exactly the type she doesn’t like.”
    “Oh, Ruth!” protested Eileen.
    “It’s true. She has poise and good looks, and Flossie likes to think she has the monopoly of both of those.”
    Madeline looked rather dashed at this, for though the compliment was pleasant, the confident prediction that she would have trouble with her immediate superior was very much the reverse.
    “Don’t worry about it.” Ruth seemed to regard life very philosophically herself. “Just mind your step, and remember that there’s no logical answer to a jealous woman. If you do have trouble, don’t try to argue. Silence is safer—and simply maddening for the other person.”
    Madeline laughed, doubtful.
    “I certainly hope it won’t come to ‘trouble’,” she said. “I’ve had difficult superiors before, of course. But jealousy”—she sighed and recalled Mrs. Sanders with disagreeable clarity—“is about the worst thing to deal with. Though why Miss Ardingley should feel jealous of me, goodness knows. She isn’t—I mean she doesn’t specially want Dr. Lanyon to take notice of her, does she?”
    Everyone spoke at once then, and opinions seemed divided, but after a moment Ruth, who seemed to have a shrewd judgment respected by the others, said,
    “She isn’t exactly sweet on him, if that’s what you mean. But, like a lot of rather attractive women who’ve achieved some authority, she can’t bear to be anything but the most important pebble on the beach, in every way. She regards anyone else’s success or distinction as a sort of challenge to her own position.”
    “But there was no special success or distinction about this incident,” Madeline protested.
    The others laughed, but Ruth went on,
    “Dr. Lanyon is about the most—what shall I say?—the most striking personality in this place. There are other men who are younger or more romantic or what you will. But he’s famous in a way that’s most unusual for anyone under fifty, he’s attractive in his own rather remote fashion, if you like them curt and unemotional, and, above all, he’s so devoted to his work that he’s never been known to look at a woman as anything but a patient or a nurse, as the case may be.” Madeline thought of Clarissa and said nothing.
    “Naturally Flossie would adore to be noticed by him—a distinction that none of us would exactly turn down,” Ruth confessed amid confirmatory laughter. “That’s really why to have a newcomer succeed where she has failed must have made her hopping mad. But don’t take it too much to heart. If you’re good at your work she can’t do much. And I’ll be there to look after you,” she finished with a consoling grin.
    “ You will?”
    “Yes. I work in the Pavilion. Didn’t I tell you?”
    “No! Oh, Ruth—I’m sorry, but I don’t remember your other name—I am so glad. That makes all the difference.”
    “Does it?”