Love Stories

and day nurses; by rounds of the Staff; by visiting days; by medicines and temperatures and milk diets and fever baths; by the distant

of goodness. The ward flung its virtue at her like a weapon and she raised no defence. In the first days things were not so bad. She lay in shock for a time, and there were not

y for hours without moving, with eyes that seemed tired with l

interne one day. The Senior was off duty and they h

ied the interne, who was drying his hands caref

ery pretty

h to look forwa

scussing certain things with young men,

he coloured bravely. "Why-why can

to the palm of one hand and gave the Probationer the b

, likely. They'd probably prefer to think of her as dead and let it

edingly sel

l," said the Probatione

to a world that mutilated its children and turned them out to die. The interne watched her as she worked. It rather galled him to see her

y and stood by her bed and worshipped. Morning and evening he brought tribute-a flower from the masses that came in daily; an orange, got by no one knows what trickery from the kitchen; a leadpencil; a box of cheap candies. At first the girl had been embarrassed by hi

ituted by Old Maggie. The rampant respectability of the ward even went so far as to refuse to wash her in those early morning hours when the night nurse, flying about with her cap on one ear, was carrying tin basins about like a blue-and-white

r, and the interne, who was glad there was no cap because of the hair. God's fool he was, indeed, for he liked to look in the interne's eyes, and did not know an interne cannot marry for years and years, and that a probationer must not upset discipl

ner worried

or. "Did you see them call that baby away o

d was now placid and full of good works. "You cannot remake the world, child. Bodies

what I mean. You're the ringleader. Now things are going

kly, with hate in her heart.

en her bed!" commande

ow

ow

whined Old Maggie, with the ward w

or the medicine closet a

d Old Maggie. "Can't

ter of the ward in her ears-down to defeat,

d Maggie set to work at the draw sheet. "Get o

Girl an unlovely name under her breath while she smoothed her pillow. She did not get t

ioner helped him-the Senior disliked burned cases-and talked of skin grafting if a new powder he had

e white coverings drawn up smoothly again over her slender body, th

in this hole all my

erne co

little skin to graft on you'd be all right in a jiffy. Can't you get

would I get frie

s then-some of

er eyes as she did whe

d. And the Probationer knew she lied

them here," he said briskly, and turned to

bare white arm. The interne stared

e Probationer, "and my blood is go

o the surface in the inner curve of her elbow. The dressing screens were u

he, commanded. "Put your sleeve down!" His eyes sa

, when he should have been thinking of other things, such as calling up the staff and making repo

he had not known she was coming. "Father Feeny was in this morning and I tackled him. He's got a lot of students-fe

" asked the Probationer. "And even if

's a poor girl burned and suffering. The father i

to happen later to make one uncomfortable; but she spoke to the Senior and the S

to her. "What's the use? I'd just go back to the same old thing; and

eople live, then, and

y face what I've been, and g

looked at the Av

shing-because there were some things the Probationer had never di

n right hand. The forefinger wa

t that?" s

ll you let me send

s the most the Pro

read in the Avenue Girl's eyes the terrible longing for the things she had given up-for home and home folks; for a clean slate

?" the Avenue G

ida

read as it comes from an out-oven?" Or: "That's a pretty shade of blue y

er, and scrubbed away to h