Love Stories

he training school as N. Jane Brown. However, she meant when she was accepte

elieve that they have been disappointed in love. They never think that they may intend to study medicine later on,

story had the

Jane Brown was sitting beside him. She had been practising counting

, and the man sniffed. Then he put a hand to his

ed. His little moustache was almost entirely

ows," said

s Jane Brown was for a nurse-the ma

ve you," he said. "Bu

is the way he took things. But he

ave it." She smiled. She had a very frie

owing to a hypodermic he had had, he groaned slightly. He was, at that time, not particularly

at

careful not to spill it down his neck. Her uniform crac

to the morphia, he had at least a hundred things he wished

conversation," he obse

. At each rise and fall of the coverlet her lips moved. Mr. Middleton, who was feeling wonderful, experimented. He drew four very r

was what she wrote. She was no

nutes by the hunting-case watch. Just long enough for the Senior Surgical Interne, known in

had been instructed. He had, however, required neither. He glanced over the record, changed the spelling of "

him. He was never afterward able to explain it. It made him create. He lay there and invented for Jane Brown a fictitious person, who was himself. This person, he said, was a newspaper reporter, who ha

en said, of those who believe that nurses go into hospitals because of being blighted. So he introduced a Mabel, suppressing her other name, a

person in a cap-the Probationer wears no cap-relieve

He had left it with the engine running, and, as a matter of fact, it ran for four hours, when it died of starvation, and was subsequently interred in a city ga

trouble; second, he had no reason to think they particularly wanted to know. They all had such a lot of things to do, such as bridge and opening co

at all bitt

mber of his room-that night "Twenty-two" had rather a bad time, between his leg and his conscience. Both carried on disgracefully. His leg stabbe

tar roof, he made up his mind to stick to his story, at least as far as the young lady with the old-fashioned w

of the young lady with the watch while he was lying to her. He felt that sh

do, somebody else could do so much better. And he comforted himself with this, that he would have been a journal

old fast to journalism. Then he lay in bed

day nurses and night nurses and reliefs, and internes and Staff and the Head Nurse a

ughby, "there was a little girl here without a cap.

appointed in love, had certainly had time

n it was only one o

remember

orth while learning their names until they were accepted. And that, anyhow, probation

ry girl wants to wear a uniform and be ready to go to the front if we have trouble. All sorts

hat this was the one. She was so exactly

. "A little, namby-pamby, mush-and-mi

on the stand so she would not over-stay her off duty. She was aching with fatigue from her head, with its smooth and shi

been what she had expected. In the first place, the man had died for hours. She had never heard of this. She had thought of death as coming quickly-a glance of farewell, closing eyes

ast she had gone behind the screen and folded h

lease take

most immediately. But that

ard, and of how kind every one was to her, which, if not entirely true, was not entirely untrue. They were

meant to accept her when her three months was up.

he probationers received the regular first-year allowance of eight dollars a month, and she could make

orches; and, of course, to Doctor Willie. He was called Doctor Willie because his father, who had taken him into partne

in a near-by borough was making an entry regarding certain coloured gentlemen shipped north from Louisiana to work on a r

and was being most awfully bored. Jane Brown had not returned, and there was a s

r in with these kindly and efficient women. He could not, for instance, imagine her patronising the Senior Surgical Interne in a deferential but u

hat day, and close her lips over further information. But when the afternoon relief, while giving him his toothbrush after lunch, said there was a most interesting gall-sto

al is the Staff, although worship did not blind the nurses to their weaknesses. Thus the older men, who had been trained before the day of asepsis and modern methods, were revered but carefully watched. They would get out of scrubbing their hands whe

with one of the Staff, who was married, and did not care for her anyhow. S

in and saying brightly,

l, God is still in His heaven,

ers and sit down a moment to rest her feet, which generally stung. And she would stop

-and so tragic. He tried to imagine being hopelessly in love, a

she was stationed on that floor. And in the same flash he saw the Senior Surgical Interne swanking about in white ducks and just the object for a probationer t

n a wheeled chair and get about? One that I

twenty-four, getting his own way about ninety-seven per cent. of the time. He got it this time, consisting of a ne

rra incognita which lay beyond, he saw a sign. He stared at it blankly, because it i

tients allowed

eption of the trifling formality of trousers, he was well dressed in a sack coat, a shirt, waistcoat, and a sort of college-boy collar and ti

ome to him, he must go to her. He particularly wanted to set her right as to Mabel

d only seen her once, and then he had had a broken leg and a quarter g

vator shaft. And far beyond, down the corridor, was somebody

rs. In the convalescent parlour, where private patients en negligée complained about the hospital f

ld Mr. Simond's cane leaned against a table, and, while engaging that gentleman in conversation, possessed himself of the cane. (b) Wheeled back to the elevator. (c) Drew cane

wn was i

nurse. She had, indeed, reached a point where, if she took a pulse three times, she got some

preads, tucked in neatly at the foot. In the exact middle of the centre table with its

r instance, she was distinctly aware that Stanislas Krzykolski's wife, in the bed next the end, had just slid a half-dozen greasy cakes, sprinkled with sugar, und

th a rouged face and a too confident manner. A hum of conversation hung over the long room. The sunlight came in and turned to

he little stir of her arrival, Twenty-two had time to see that Jane Brown was worth even all the trouble he had ta

and the buzz died away. She was not pretty, and

r hunting-case watch, and the lame girl swept the ward with s

e horribly ashamed of itself. And, for no earthly reason in the world, he began to feel like a cumberer of the earth. Before she had finished the first song, he wa

an extremely cold tin sign lying on his knee under the blanket, at first she did not know him. The shock of this was almost too

nd flushed a little, because she knew he had no b

the lame girl had limped away. "Because, that day I came in and y

s said in an exact copy of the ward nurse's voice

ot that wasn't true. You may have forgotten, but I hav

terested in him. She had almost forgotten him. And as he stirred Mr. Simond's cane fell out. It was immediately followe

marched out of the ward into the corridor, and there subsided into quiet hysterics of mirth.

manded, after a time. "Of cour

she asked. All her professional manner h

Because I am absolutely bored to death in that room o

ked around. There w

t if you slipped it behind that radia

window just then, and no one heard one of the hospital's mo

d man was being carried in on a stretcher. Although she did not know it-indee

of Mabel, but was still a reporter, hurt in doing his duty. He had let this go because he saw that duty was a sort of fetish with the

hat he liked. And he liked the way her hair was soft and straight and shiny. And he liked the way she was all business and no nonsense. And the way she counted pulses, with her lip

fternoon, and he read "Pippa Passes." He thoug

rreconcilable things, such as keeping down expenses while keeping up requisitions, and remembering the different sorts of sutures the Staff likes, and receiving the Ladies' Committee, and

istant was giving her a mustard footbath, which was very hot. The Head sat up with a blanket over

ner with the ridiculo

tant poured in

's a nice little thing, and she

ead g

at all. I detest fluttery people. She

ulle and was softening a bit from the steam. She felt a thrill of pity fo

stay," she observed. "

ally very wretched, and so she was unfair. "She is pretty and sweet. But I cannot r

he looked up quickly, but the Head was squee

o was having a stock-taking, and Augustus Baird was havi

kable shuffling of f

probationers study them, especially footsteps. It gi

s on a half run, generally accompanied by the clanking of a tool or two. And the elevator man runs, too, because generally the bell

ity. It moves with the inevitability of fate, with the pride of royalty, with the ease of the best made-to-order boots. The ring of a Staff membe

was the scuffling of four pairs of feet, carefully instructed not to keep step. It mea

e ward was watching. It had itself, generally speaking, come in feet first. It knew the procedure. So, instructed by low voices from the beds a

l Interne. Came two convalescents from the next ward to stare in at the

ng a queen on a ten spot and pretending the

e bed, and the Senior Surgical Interne was writ

ver his shoulder, wh

"I don't know how. I won't

look at the bed and

scrubbing porches or borrowing a half dollar or being suspected of stealing the eggs from the he

n feel the warm earth through his worthless clothes on his worthl

the Probationer, i

gical Interne

him?"

e was still staring at this

only partially professional. Then he went to the medicin

e liked to feel that he could do something for her. Indeed, ther

tine trip through the twilight of the corridor back of the elevator shaft. To avoid scandal he pretended interest in other wards, but he gr

his new and rather terrible world of the hospital and home. It was not Johnny alone, it was Johnny scrubbing a home porch and doing it badly, it was Johnny in her fat

grimly that he had been ten days missing and that no one

could see that the ward nurse had an ey

says they have had a message from Doctor Willie. He i

Willie came, looking weary but smiling benevolently. Jane Brown met him in a corrid

a train." He put a hand under her chin, which is never done to the members of the training sch

wn swall

ged. "They want to op

a hurry, these hospitals. W

body well

nurse once in her training-the thinness of the

s in sight, and he was out of hearing. "Look here, Nellie," he said, "I'

en. But she only asked him to warn the boys abou

r, she would not have known what

ior Surgical Interne lighted a cigarett

ng's off," he

edical, who was rather worried about a case li

el, he felt, so ready that he feared she had been more polite than sincere. Probably she still believed there was a Mabel. Not that it mattered, except that he hated to make a fool of

was a slip-up and somebody paid. There had been a night operation, following on a busy day, and the operating-

she looked anything but fluttery. She was a very grim and determined young person just then, and professional beyond belief. The other things, like washing window-sills and cutting toe-nai

ould always hav

ward's soft-boiled eggs. She washed window-sills that morning again, but no longer was there rebellion in her soul. She was seeing suddenly how the hospital required

and put them beside Johnny's bed-Johnny, w

d it on Tony, the Italian, with a stiletto thrust in his neck, by jerking at the adhesive. Tony wailed, and Jane Brown, who was the "di

fellow, but had never been stabbed in the ne

," said T

n turned

t it off properly?" she

rown was reprimanded by the First Assist

was both stupid and cruel.

e is a dangerous thing.'" This was a favorite quotation of hers, although not Browning. "Nurses in hospitals are there

igent!" said the Pr

d that it was merely what she had expected and

n a woman entered a room and remained standing as long as she stood. And now she was in a new world, where she had to rise and remain standing wh

ly extremely

Willie had seemed to think that nature would clear matters up there, and had requested no operation. She smoothed beds and carried cups of water and broke anot

had not. She was feeling rather worried, to tell the truth. For a Staff surgeon going through the ward, had stopped by Johnny's

nds folded in their laps. They talked a little among themselves, but it was only a buzzing tha

s gone. The bath-room man reporte

the world wo

r, "who does take things in a ho

r gave her a majesty that filled the Probationer with awe. Behind her came t

right. She sat and rested her weary young body, and remembered how Doctor Willie was loved and respected, and the years he had

She rose and looked over the shadowy room, where among the rows of

school. One which I regret, and which will mea

s, and it has been considered necessary to quarantine the h