Vigil in the Night by A. J. Cronin Read Free Book Online Page B

Nurse Lee. And so, toward the beginning of May, a memorandum arrived for Anne, granting her the promised leave.
      It was a lovely day when she took her seat in the London train, thrilling to the knowledge that she was so soon to see her sister again. Friday afternoon until Monday morning—what a long holiday it seemed!
      As the train pounded through the sunshine she felt it good to be alive. She had made many friends in these last weeks, and despite the exactions and hardships of Hepperton she was conscious that she was making progress in her work. For the past two weeks she had been deputizing in Dr. Prescott’s operating theatre. It was always a stimulus, a great incentive to watch his marvelous technique, especially when he dealt with those cases that were his specialty, lesions of the central nervous system and the brain. Often she would find herself thinking of him, recollecting some particularly delicate touch, the swift, deft wielding of an instrument as he traced the infinitesimal line between life and death.
      Lucy did not meet Anne at Euston, but Anne found the correct bus and was soon in Elthreda Avenue, Muswell Hill. Her heart was beating quickly as she raced up the front steps of Number 7. She rang the bell, then gave a joyful cry as Lucy appeared behind the smart maid who opened the door. The next instant the two sisters were in each other’s arms.
      Anne felt as though she could never again let Lucy go, but at last she forced herself to sit down, to talk calmly, and to listen. Lucy certainly had much to tell her. She was perhaps a little plumper than before, and she looked very smart. She was proud of her new house, her new shiny furniture, her new frilly-aproned maid, and naturally she was anxious to display them.
     
    CHAPTER 18
      Ensconced in her little drawing room behind the tray which was immediately brought in, she gave Anne tea, using her best china. She talked of her new neighbors—“really nice people”—of the new plays and pictures she had seen. But she could not rest till she had taken her sister round, made her examine everything from the quality of the bed linen to the cut of her latest evening gown. Anne might have smiled if she had not loved Lucy so much. Lucy seemed bent on proudly exhibiting how much matrimony had done for her.
      “It’s all very wonderful, my dear,” Anne finally declared, slipping her arm round her sister’s waist. “I’m so terribly, terribly glad you’re happy. Joe must be doing famously to give you such a lovely home.”
      Lucy nodded knowingly. “We’re in on a pretty good thing, Anne. Transport, Limited—I think I told you about it. Joe’s gone in with Ted Grein—Ted’s such a gentleman—in a real big motor-bus company—you know, long-distance road travel between London and Bristol and Cardiff and Manchester. There’s an idea now!” She paused dramatically at the mention of the northern city. “I’ll send you back to Manchester in one of our coaches. No need to use the grubby old railway with Transport, Limited on the map. It’s the coming concern. Ted’s had it going a couple of years. It was such a chance for Joe to put his money in it. There’s wads and wads to be made, Anne. Your little sister’s going to be rich.”
      They were interrupted by the arrival of Joe himself. Back from business, he came in with his old, awkward air, greeted Anne with a diffident yet spontaneous warmth. Seeing him thus, Anne was a little startled at the change in him. Perhaps it was his dark business clothes; yet he seemed pale and high strung, with a furrow between his brows which had not been there before.
      “You’re bringing us a real breath of the north, Anne.” He laughed shortly. “I don’t mind telling you I could do with a spot of that air myself.”
      “What nonsense, Joe!” Lucy said rather impatiently.
      Joe answered: “Nonsense or not, lass, that’s how I feel. I’d give a pound note to be out on the Harbor