got up to accompany his patient to the door. His hand took hers in a warm clasp, friendly, encouraging. His voice was encouraging too, full of interest and sympathy. She went away revived, almost happy. Dr Christow took such an interest!
As the door closed behind her, John Christow forgot her, he had really been hardly aware of her existence even when she had been there. He had just done his stuff. It was all automatic. Yet, though it had hardly ruffled the surface of his mind, he had given out strength. His had been the automatic response of the healer and he felt the sag of depleted energy.
‘God,’ he thought again, ‘I’m tired.’
Only one more patient to see and then the clear space of the weekend. His mind dwelt on it gratefully. Golden leaves tinged with red and brown, the soft moist smell of autumn—the road down through the woods—the wood fires, Lucy, most unique and delightful of creatures—with her curious, elusive will-o’-the-wisp mind. He’d rather have Henry and Lucy than any host and hostess in England. And The Hollow was the most delightful house he knew. On Sunday he’d walk through the woods with Henrietta—up on to the crest of the hill and along the ridge. Walking with Henrietta he’d forget that there were any sick people in the world. Thank goodness, he thought, there’s never anything the matter with Henrietta.
And then with a sudden, quick twist of humour:
‘She’d never let on to me if there were!’
One more patient to see. He must press the bell on his desk. Yet, unaccountably, he delayed. Already he was late. Lunch would be ready upstairs in the dining-room. Gerda and the children would be waiting. He must get on.
Yet he sat there motionless. He was so tired—so very tired.
It had been growing on him lately, this tiredness. It was at the root of the constantly increasing irritability which he was aware of but could not check. Poor Gerda, he thought, she has a lot to put up with. If only she was not so submissive—so ready to admit herself in the wrong when, half the time, it was he who was to blame! There were days when everything that Gerda said or did conspired to irritate him, and mainly, he thought ruefully, it was her virtues that irritated him. It was her patience, her unselfishness, her subordination of her wishes to his, that aroused his ill-humour. And she never resented his quick bursts of temper, never stuck to her own opinion in preference to his, never attempted to strike out a line of her own.
(Well, he thought, that’s why you married her, isn’t it? What are you complaining about? After that summer at San Miguel…)
Curious, when you came to think of it, that the very qualities that irritated him in Gerda were the qualities he wanted so badly to find in Henrietta. What irritated him in Henrietta (no, that was the wrong word—it was anger, not irritation, that she inspired)—what angered him there was Henrietta’s unswerving rectitude where he was concerned. It was so at variance to her attitude to the world in general. He had said to her once:
‘I think you are the greatest liar I know.’
‘Perhaps.’
‘You are always willing to say anything to people if only it pleases them.’
‘That always seems to me more important.’
‘More important than speaking the truth?’
‘Much more.’
‘Then why in God’s name can’t you lie a little more to me?’
‘Do you want me to?’
‘Yes.’
‘I’m sorry, John, but I can’t.’
‘You must know so often what I want you to say—’
Come now, he mustn’t start thinking of Henrietta. He’d be seeing her this very afternoon. The thing to do now was to get on with things! Ring the bell and see this last damned woman. Another sickly creature! One-tenth genuine ailment and nine-tenths hypochondria! Well, why shouldn’t she enjoy ill-health if she cared to pay for it? It balanced the Mrs Crabtrees of this world.
But still he sat there motionless.
He was tired—he was so very tired. It seemed to him that he had been tired for a very long time. There was something he wanted—wanted badly.
And there shot into his mind the thought: ‘I want to go home.’
It astonished him. Where had that thought come from? And what did it mean? Home? He had never had a home. His parents had been Anglo-Indians, he had been brought up, bandied about from aunt to uncle, one set of holidays with each. The first permanent home he had had, he supposed, was this house in Harley Street.
Did he think of this house as home? He shook his head. He knew that he didn’t.
But his medical curiosity was aroused. What had he meant by that phrase that had flashed out suddenly in his mind?
I want to go home.
There must be something—some image.
He half-closed his eyes—there must be some background.
And very clearly, before his mind’s eye, he saw the deep blue of the Mediterranean Sea, the palms, the cactus and the prickly pear; he smelt the hot summer dust, and remembered the cool feeling of the water after lying on the beach in the sun. San Miguel!
He was startled—a little disturbed. He hadn’t thought of San Miguel for years. He certainly didn’t want to go back there. All that belonged to a past chapter in his life.
That was twelve—fourteen—fifteen years ago. And he’d done the right thing! His judgment had been absolutely right! He’d been madly in love with Veronica but it wouldn’t have done. Veronica would have swallowed him body and soul. She was the complete egoist and she had made no bones about admitting it! Veronica had grabbed most things that she wanted, but she hadn’t been able to grab him! He’d escaped. He had, he supposed, treated her badly from the conventional point of view. In plain words, he had jilted her! But the truth was that he intended to live his own life, and that was a thing that Veronica would not have allowed him to do. She intended to live her life and carry John along as an extra.
She had been astonished when he had refused to come with her to Hollywood.
She had said disdainfully:
‘If you really want to be a doctor you can take a degree over there, I suppose, but it’s quite unnecessary. You’ve got enough to live on, and I shall be making heaps of money.’
And he had replied vehemently:
‘But I’m keen on my profession. I’m going to work with Radley.’
His voice—a young enthusiastic voice—was quite awed.
Veronica sniffed.
‘That funny snuffy old man?’
‘That funny snuffy old man,’ John had said angrily, ‘has done some of the most valuable research work on Pratt’s Disease—’
She had
