"If you please," said he, "I'd like to be discharged, and go back to my company.I'm well enough now to do duty, and I'll be entirely well in a short time, if I can get out of doors into the fresh air.""Indeed," answered Dr.Moxon, with a sneer, "may I inquire when you began to diagnose cases, and offer advice to your superior officers? Why don't you set up in the practice of medicine at once, and apply for a commission as Surgeon in the Army? Step back, an don't ever speak to me again in this manner, or it'll be the worse for you, I can tell you.I know when you are fit to go back to duty, and I won't have patients annoying me with their whims and fancies.Step back, sir."Thus he passed along, leaving anger and humiliation behind him, as a steamer leaves a wake of waves beaten into a froth.
"Old Sawbones made a mistake with his morning cocktail, and mixed a lot of wormwood with it," said one of the "convalescents," in an undertone to those about him.
"This awful hot weather's spilin' most everything," said another, "and the old man's temper never was any too sweet."Dr.Moxon came up to Rachel, and regarded her for an instant very unpleasantly."Young woman," he said in a harsh tone and with a still harsher manner, "the rules of this institution require every attendant to be present at morning roll-call, under pain of punishment.You were not present this morning, but be careful that you are in the future."Rachel's grief over her own situation had been swallowed up by indignation at the Surgeon's brutality to others.All her higher instincts were on fire at the gratuitous insults to boys, toward whom her womanly sumpathies streamed out.The pugnacious element, large in hers as in all strong natures, asserted itself and invited to the fray.If there was no one else to resist this petty tyrant she would, and mayhap in this she might find such exercise of her heroic qualities that she felt were within her, as would justify herself in her own esteem.She met with a resolute glance his peevish eyes, and said;"When the rules are communicated to me in a proper manner, I shall take care to obey them, if they are just and proper; but I will not be spoken to in that way by any man."His eyes fell from the encounter with hers, and the dull mottle in his cheek became crimson with a blush at this assertion of outraged womanly dignity.He turned away, saying gruffly:
"Just as I expected.The moment a woman comes into the hospital, all discipline is at an end."He moved off angrily.All the inmates saw and overheard.If Rachel's refreshing beauty had captivated them before, her dauntless spirit completed the conquest.
A cheery voice behind her said, "Good morning." There was something so winning in its tones that the set lines in her indignant face relaxed, and she turned softened eyes to meet the frankly genial ones of Dr.Paul Denslow.
"Good morning, Miss---," he repeated, as she hesitated, a little dazed.
"Bond--Rachel Bond's my name.Good morning, sir," she answered, putting out her hand.
As he took it, he said: "I want to make an abject apology.We are ill-prepared to entertain a lady here, and no one knew of your coming.But we certainly intend to mitigate in some degree the desolation of the room to which you were conducted.I left you for the purpose of seeing what the store-room contained that would contribute a trifle toward transforming it into a maiden's bower--""Cinderella's fairy godmother couldn't have made the transformation with that room," she said with a little shrug of despair.
"Probably not--probably not--and I lay no claim to even the least of the powers exercised by the old lady with the wand.But I allow no man to surpass me in the matter of good intentions.That is a luxury of which the poorest of us can afford an abundance, and Iwill not deny myself anything that is so cheap."Rachel was beguiled into smiling at his merry cynicism.
"Allusions to the pavement in the unmentionable place are barred in this connection," he continued gayly."On my way to carry out these good intentions--at some one else's expense, remember, all the time--I was called to the bedside of a dying man, and detained there some time.When I at last returned to your room, I judged that you were fast asleep, and I decided not to disturb you.""I think you would have found it a difficult matter to have roused me.I had sunk on the cot, and was sleeping the sleep of--""The just," interposed Dr.Denslow, gallantly.
"No, of the fatigued."
"Well, scientific truth compels me to say that fatigue is a surer and stronger sedative than a clear conscience even.I know, for I have occasionally tried a clear conscience--only by way of experiment, you know," he added, apologetically.
"Well, whatever the case, I was slepping as though on downy beds of ease.""Then my mind is lightened of a mountain-load of responsibility for having made you pass a miserable night.But let's go in to breakfast.I am opposed to doing anything on an empty stomach--even to holding a pleasant conversation.It invites malaria, and malaria brings a number of disagreeable sensations which people mistake for repentance, remorse, religious awakening, and so on, according to their mental idiosyncrasies, and the state of their digestion."The breakfast did not help remove the unpleasant impressions already made upon her mind.The cloth that covered the coarse planks of the table was unmistakably a well-worn sheet.Tin cups and platters made humble substitution for china, and were appropriately accompanied by cast-iron knives and two tined forks.
Two Hospital Stewards--denoted by the green bands, embroidered with CADUCEI, around their arms--and the same number of Wardmasters, formed the mess which sat down with Dr.Denslow and Rachel, on benches around the table.
What bouyant cheerfulness could do to raise Rachel's spirits and give an appetizing flavor to the coarse viands, Dr.Denslow did.
