'Poor Nurse O'Brien.'
Mrs. Welman said indulgently, 'She's not a bad sort, really, but all nurses annoy me; they always will think that you'd like 'a nice cup of tea' at five in the morning!' She paused.
'What's that? Is it the car?'
Mary looked out of the window.
'Yes, it's the car. Miss Elinor and Mr. Roderick have arrived.'
II
Mrs. Welman said to her niece, 'I'm very glad, Elinor, about you and Roddy.'
Elinor smiled at her. 'I thought you would be, Aunt Laura.'
The older woman said, after a moment's hesitation, 'You do – care about him, Elinor?'
Elinor's delicate brows lifted. 'Of course.'
Laura Welman said quickly, 'You must forgive me, dear. You know, you're very reserved. It's very difficult to know what you're thinking or feeling. When you were both much younger I thought you were perhaps beginning to care for Roddy – too much.'
Again Elinor's delicate brows were raised. 'Too much?'
The older woman nodded. 'Yes. It's not wise to care too much. Sometimes a very young girl does do just that… I was glad when you went abroad to Germany to finish. Then, when you came back, you seemed quite indifferent to him – and, well, I was sorry for that, too! I'm a tiresome old woman, difficult to satisfy! But I've always fancied that you had, perhaps, rather an intense nature – that kind of temperament runs in our family. It isn't a very happy one for its possessors… But, as I say, when you came back from abroad so indifferent to Roddy, I was sorry about that, because I had always hoped you two would come together. And now you have, and so everything is all right! And you do really care for him?'
Elinor said gravely, 'I care for Roddy enough and not too much.'
Mrs. Welman nodded approval. 'I think, then, you'll be happy. Roddy needs love – but he doesn't like violent emotion. He'd shy off from possessiveness.'
Elinor said with feeling, 'You know Roddy very well!'
Mrs. Welman said, 'If Roddy cares for you just a little more than you care for him – well, that's all to the good.'
Elinor said sharply, 'Aunt Agatha's Advice Column. 'Keep your boy friend guessing! Don't let him be too sure of you!''
Laura Welman said sharply, 'Are you unhappy, child? Is anything wrong?'
'No, no, nothing.'
Laura Welman said, 'You just thought I was being rather – cheap? My dear, you're young and sensitive. Life, I'm afraid, is rather cheap.'
Elinor said with some slight bitterness, 'I suppose it is.'
Laura Welman said, 'My child – you are unhappy? What is it?'
'Nothing – absolutely nothing.' She got up and went to the window. Half turning, she said, 'Aunt Laura, tell me, honestly, do you think love is ever a happy thing?'
Mrs. Welman's face became grave. 'In the sense you mean, Elinor – no, probably not. To care passionately for another human creature brings always more sorrow than joy; but all the same, Elinor, one would not be without that experience. Anyone who has never really loved has never really lived.'
The girl nodded. She said, 'Yes – you understand – you've known what it's like -'
She turned suddenly, a questioning look in her eyes. 'Aunt Laura -'
The door opened and red-haired Nurse O'Brien came in. She said in a sprightly manner, 'Mrs. Welman, here's Doctor come to see you.'
Dr. Lord was a young man of 32. He had sandy hair, a pleasantly ugly freckled face and a remarkably square jaw. His eyes were a keen, piercing light blue.
'Good morning, Mrs. Welman,' he said.
'Good morning, Dr. Lord. This is my niece. Miss Carlisle.'
A very obvious admiration sprang into Dr. Lord's transparent face. He said, 'How do you do?' The hand that Elinor extended to him he took rather gingerly as though he thought he might break it.
Mrs. Welman went on: 'Elinor and my nephew have come to cheer me up.'
'Splendid!' said Dr. Lord, 'Just what you need! It will do you a lot of good, I am sure, Mrs. Welman.'
He was still looking at Elinor with obvious admiration.
Elinor said, moving toward the door, 'Perhaps I shall see you before you go, Dr. Lord?'
'Oh – er – yes, of course.'
She went out, shutting the door behind her. Dr. Lord approached the bed, Nurse O'Brien fluttering behind him.
Mrs. Welman said with a twinkle, 'Going through the usual bag of tricks, Doctor: pulse, respiration, temperature? What humbugs you doctors are!'
Nurse O'Brien said with a sigh, 'Oh, Mrs. Welman. What a thing, now, to be saying to the doctor!'
Dr. Lord said with a twinkle, 'Mrs. Welman sees through me, Nurse! All the same, Mrs. Welman, I've got to do my stuff, you know. The trouble with me is I've never learned the right bedside manner.'
'Your bedside manner's all right. Actually you're rather proud of it.'
Peter Lord chuckled and remarked, 'That's what you say!'
After a few routine questions had been asked and answered, Dr. Lord leaned back in his chair and smiled at his patient.
'Well,' he said, 'you're going on splendidly.'
Laura Welman said, 'So I shall be up and walking round the house in a few weeks' time?'
'Not quite so quickly as that.'
'No, indeed. You humbug! What's the good of living stretched out like this, and cared for like a baby?'
Dr. Lord said, 'What's the good of life, anyway? That's the real question. Ever read about that nice medieval invention, the Little Ease? You couldn't stand, sit, or lie in it. You'd think anyone condemned to that would die in a few weeks. Not at all. One man lived for sixteen years in an iron cage, was released, and lived to a hearty old age.'
Laura Welman said, 'What's the point of this story?'
Peter Lord said, 'The point is that one's got an instinct to live. One doesn't live because one's reason assents to living. People who, as we say, 'would be better dead' don't want to die! People who apparently have got everything to live for just let themselves fade out of life because they haven't got the energy to fight.'
'Go on.'
'There's nothing more. You're one of the people who really wants to live, whatever you say about it! And if your body wants to live, it's no good your brain dishing out the other stuff.'
Mrs. Welman said with an abrupt change of subject, 'How do you like it down here?'
Peter Lord said, smiling, 'It suits me fine.'
'Isn't it a bit irksome for a young man like you? Don't you want to specialize? Don't you find a country G.P. practice rather boring?'
Lord shook his sandy head.
'No, I like my job. I like people, you know, and I like ordinary everyday diseases. I don't really want to pin down the rare bacillus of an obscure disease. I like measles and chicken pox and all the rest of it. I like seeing how different bodies react to them. I like seeing if I can't improve on recognized treatment. The trouble with me is I've got absolutely no ambition. I shall stay here till I grow side-whiskers and people begin saying, 'Of course, we've always had Dr. Lord, and he's a nice old man; but he's very old-fashioned in his methods and perhaps we'd better call in young so-and-so, who's very up to date.''
'H'm,' said Mrs. Welman. 'You seem to have got it all taped out!'
Peter Lord got up. 'Well,' he said, 'I must be off,'
