Nurse Jess by Joyce Dingwell Read Free Book Online Page A

warm wide-bosomed earth. In some odd way she felt that arms had been put around her, she knew, without any movement from him, a touch of a hand in hers.
    Presently he said softly, “ It is always difficult, always unpredictable. Nature made certain rules of time, of physical condition. Sometimes a leeway can be made up, sometimes not. When we fail they go on to the really skilled Hands. ”
    “ Yes, ” Jessa said, and she felt the tight ball disappear.
    “ And how are you, Perfesser? ” Professor Gink was now saying.
    Jessa knew he must have heard her greeting, and she flushed.
    She looked across at him in apology and explained, “ It was only because he had a faraway look that I named him that . ”
    “ Not, ” suggested Professor Gink mildly, “ because he had my ears? ”
    He listened to his breathing, took up a little wris t , replaced it, drew up the rugs.
    “ I ’ ll pass him tonight, ” he decided. “ Shall we go, Nurse Jess? ”
    He remembered her name. Shutting the door soundlessly behind them—by this Jessa had really conquered the art of appearance and disappearance—Jessa felt at first gratified, and then disconcerted. Of course he would remember her name. Everyone always remembered a thorn.
    Falteringly she said, “ I ’ m terribly sorry about your spectacles. It was really my fault. If you have others to substitute I could have them mended. ”
    “ I do have others. These are my old ones. I always carry several pairs, but put on the first one I lay my hands on. It just happens I ’ ve laid my hands each time on this pair. ”
    “ Then could I have them, please? ”
    “ What for? ”
    “ To mend them. I just told you. ”
    “ Look here, they ’ re my old pair. The frames are positively battered. They ’ re not worth it, but I tell you what you could do, Nurse Jess —”
    “ Yes? ”
    “ Your fingers are more supple than mine —”
    Jessa glanced down and doubted it. He might be big and clumsy, but his hands were thin and sensitive, they were surgeon ’ s hands. Her look said as much.
    “ Yours are a woman ’ s hands, ” he differed, “ and as such, more versed in intricate knotting. I have no doubt, too, you have finer cotton than this. ” He took off the glasses and handed them over. Without them he looked defenceless somehow, more like a small boy than a learned man.
    She touched the clumsy repair job. “ It feels like fishing gut. ” she told him.
    He grinned suddenly and mischievously. “ Quite right, Nurse Jess, it was. ”
    “ You want me to put fine cotton round this break, finish it without a dangle? ”
    “ Is that what you prescribe? ”
    “ Yes, ” said Jess.
    He was rummaging for his second pair of glasses, his best pair. Out they came, a little less battered than the first.
    Jessa was putting the repair job into one of her capacious pockets. “ You really should get some decent glasses, ” she advised, “ why don ’ t you slip into the Eye Clin —”
    She stopped short, agonizingly aware of what she had been going to say, of his instant hidden laughter.
    Clinics ... She was always recommending him to clinics. What must he think!
    “ I must go to tea, ” she stammered, retreated a step, said, “ Goodbye, sir, ” then hurried along the corridor.
    Her cheeks were burning, her heart was pounding furiously at her own stupidity, she felt .disgusted with herself—but in her pocket, oddly comforting, oddly lovable, she carried carefully and proudly the broken spectacles of the Great Professor Gink.

 
    CHAPTER V
    SHE sat up late that night making a neat job of them. She even ran down to the corner store for a reel of brown silk. Her own sewing box, a farewell gift from Mother, had a selection of spools like an artist ’ s palette, but you couldn ’ t mend a professor ’ s spectacles in pink or blue thread.
    When she had finished, it looked almost professional. It was very strong, very unobtrusive, most of all it had no dangle. She put the glasses beside