DOCTOR AT LARGE

'But Dr Potter-Phipps may be away all night. I mean, he might have to go to a case somewhere after his golf,' I said quickly. 'I'd go home now if I were you.'

Still clutching me, she asked pathetically, 'Take me home. Please take me. I couldn't face it. Not alone.'

'Really, that's asking rather a lot, you know.'

'Please! It's not far.'

I hesitated. 'Oh, all right, then.' I had to get rid of her somehow. 'If you promise to behave yourself on the way.'

She nodded her head. 'I promise,' she said, like a penitent schoolgirl.

I left the flat, and helped her down the stairs to the street. I called a taxi and we got in together.

'Who is there to look after you?' I asked.

She shook her head.

'Haven't you any relatives or friends you could get hold of?'

'I hate them all.'

I turned and stared at the beautiful blue and gold afternoon outside and wished I had been Dr Potter-Phipps' caddie.

The girl lived at the far end of Curzon Street, and we drove along in silence. Suddenly she announced more cheerfully. 'You know, I've been a bloody fool.'

I swung round, and found her carefully doing her make-up.

'I must say you've been acting a little oddly, even for this part of the world.'

She smiled for the first time. 'I am a silly thing, aren't I? Fancy getting all worked up like that. I suppose I did have rather a lot to drink at lunch time. That always sends me off the rails a bit. Didn't you think I was crazy?'

'It did cross my mind to send for the strong-arm squad, I admit.'

'I'm so glad you didn't. And such a heavenly day, too!' She closed her compact with a snap. 'Here we are. Won't you come in for a minute and have a drink? I should think you need one.?

'I really don't think I should-'

'Come on! I'll ring the exchange and have your calls put through to my number. Razzy often does.'

I wavered. Being alone with female patients was bad enough; going to their flats afterwards for drinks would certainly raise every eyebrow on the General Medical Council. Still, it was spring…

Just a quick one, then,' I said.

'My name's Kitty,' she told me, opening the door. 'I've only got a very tiny flat, but make yourself at home. Razzy does.'

The flat would have taken my Bayswater room a dozen times, and was furnished with an amiable extravagance that must have taken Razzy's fancy. Kitty immediately threw open the window, took a deep breath, and trilled, 'Spring, spring, spring! Isn't it lovely? Don't you adore the spring? With the primroses and the cowslips and the bluebells and things? I swore I'd have a window-box this year. What'll you have to drink, darling?'

'I've started on brandy this afternoon already, I'm afraid. So I suppose I'd better go on, if you've got any.

'Sure, my pet. Brandy it is. The place is stiff with it.'

She brought from the cupboard two tumblers, and a bottle with a plain label bearing only a crown and the date 1904.

'Here, steady on,' I called, as she half-filled both glasses. 'I'm sure that stuff's supposed to be drunk by the thimbleful.'

'Here's to life,' she said, taking a large drink. 'That's better!' Then she sat on the sofa beside me. 'Tell me about yourself.'

'There's not much to tell.' I licked my lips, savouring the brandy. 'I'm Dr Potter-Phipps's temporary assistant, that's all.'

'You're very young to be a doctor.'

'As a matter of fact-and it must prove something, because I wouldn't tell it to everybody-I haven't been a doctor very long.'

'I could tell you hadn't much practical experience the moment I fell into your arms in your flat.'

'Oh, dear! And I thought I was being such a commanding figure.'

She laughed.

'By the way,' I said modestly. 'I'm sorry I clocked you one.'

'And I'm sorry I clocked you one, too, Doctor darling.'

We both laughed and had some more brandy. After a while, everything seemed to become very cosy.

'It must be wonderful being a doctor,' she said dreamily. 'Curing people who are stricken.'

'There isn't all that much curing in it. And fortunately most of the people arriving on our doormat aren't very stricken.'

'But it's lovely to have someone to sympathize with you and hold your hand and tell you you're wonderful even if you're not really ill. That's where Razzy's so marvellous. Have you noticed his eyes?' She threw back her head. 'Hypnotic! Cruelly hypnotic.'

'I'm afraid I can't reach those heights, but I can certainly sympathize with you and-' I held her hand-'tell you you're wonderful.'

'You're sweet,' she said, getting up. 'I'm going to change.'

I helped myself to another half-tumbler of her brandy, which had the effect of producing a pleasant conscious detachment from the world, like addiction to morphia. I recognized cheerfully that I was getting myself into a dangerous situation. My conduct was certainly becoming infamous in a professional respect, for Kitty's entering our waiting-room and smashing the furniture- on my head had placed us henceforward in a professional relationship. What should I do about it? I felt in my wallet for the B.M.A. booklet on Ethics, and turning over the pages found a great deal of sound advice on the size of doctor's door-plates, fee-splitting, and association with the clergy, but nothing on the tantalizing frontier between professional and social obligations where I was now dancing. A faint, fresh breeze rustled the curtains and a bird started singing on the window-ledge. And what the hell! I thought. It's spring. I put the book away and drank some more brandy.

Kitty came back wearing a nйgligй.

'How's it going?' she asked cheerfully.

'I'm responding to treatment. Have some more of your brandy. Liquor should be quaffed, not sipped.'

'Here's to life, Doctor darling.'

'Here's to you, patient pet.'

We drank with linked arms. With a sigh, she stretched herself on the sofa. She held out her arms and smiled.

'Doctor darling,' she murmured invitingly.

I licked my lips. There was a terrible risk making love to a patient…But, damn it! Alone with a beautiful woman. Wasn't it worth it? Was I a man or a mouse? Anyway, I couldn't possibly disappoint her…

'Come to me,' she breathed.

How lovely she looked! But how much more lovely she would look lying there without any clothes on at all…

I jumped up. 'Get me a taxi!' I shouted. 'Quick!' And what, I wondered, would I now say to the Minister of Inland Development.

11

When I dashed into the flat I found a note neatly pinned to the examination couch:

_Dear Doctor

I fear that some dire emergency has called you away. I fully realize the trials of a doctor's life, and that some poor soul is in a worse state than me. However, lying on your couch seems to have relieved the discomfort, and as I am so anxious to get away this afternoon I will go round the corner to an osteopath recommended by the Minister