The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-06-08
An Emergency.

An Emergency.
The hospital fronted on a little side
street and was a low brick building.
! with outside steps leading to frs front
| door, gas lamp fared gustily in the
wind, broken pane giving ingress TO
! the wandering breezes. The alley 70 the
rear was one of those blank-looking city
byways thai smell Of dust. dirt and veg
etables. The moon looked down from a
waste of gray clouds. and smoke from
! the factory chimneys near by fioated
laziiy skyward. wagon ratified over
! the nearest street crossing, turned into
| the alley and halted by the back en-
/ trance to the hospital. Two policemen
| stepped from the vehicle, bearing a
streteher. On the canvas lay man
with white face and closed eyes, q
corpse-like object in the half light. They
carried him I'D the rear stairs and rap
ped sharply at the door.
The door opened swiftly and smoothly
and a girl in the uniform of the hospi-
| tai nurses appeared, and the officers hur-
ried in with their grewsome burden.
Presently they emerged and, climbing
into the ambulance, drove away.
"A cool little woman. that said one
of them.
"one of the finest" said the blue-coat
VINO had been addressed.
The next morning Frank Hamilton
awoke with a dull pain in his left side
that brought back the night before, when
he had been caught between the cars in
the switch yard He had remembered the
face of the night nurse. pale face
with dark eyes and framed heavily with
the duskiest of tresses. The day nurse
was a little slip of a blonde who slip
ped around N the corridors and halls of
the hospital as unobtrusively as a
mouse.
Hamilton was of good family, but was
down on his luck from rash specuia-
ton, and had accepted a job in the
railroad yards rather than write home
for money. He was of an impulsive ma
ture, and rather emotional and hopeful
than a man able TO stand steadily up
against misfortune
He waited curiously for the night nurse
TO make her appearance. Presently she
came, and he noticed that she took no
more interest in him than she seemed to
take in an old man who lay in the same
room with him. Her attitude and de-
meanor were strictly professional very
calm and self-possessed. and she looked
and reminded him, somehow, of a serene
and fair lily.
How badly am hurt?" he asked her.
Not seriously she replied. TITS
merely shock and a bruise; no bones
broken"
How long will it be before I am
well?" he returned.
IF nothing happens" she responded,
sin a week or ten days
What could happen?" he inquired
Fever, for one thing she replied
"All that is necessary for you to do Is
to keep quiet and not worry"
THAT ought to be easy enough" he
answered; few people worry, do they?"
''Not If they care to get well" was
her answer.
DO you like this work." he ventured.
you are very inquisitive and presume
on your hurts" was the girls reply. 'If
I didn't like II I would not be here"
isn't it pretty hars for woman to
be here with, what do they call them?
Emergencies coming in night and day?"
1T is hard and disagreeable often,''
the answer came, but 1t IS hardest on
the people who are hurt and those who
depend on them for support.
do people die here?" he said
"Plenty of them fst
do you ever see ghosts?" he per-
sisted.
Inc mouse IS Iul OF lDefn, she re-
Piled, her face lighting up with what
seemed to Hamilton a most wonderfully
quaint smile.
She gave him the drops the doctor had
told him brusquely to go to
sleep and presently he did so, half lulled
by the stiffness which seemed to fall
over the narrow streets outside when
night fell In the morning the little
blonde nurse came on duty and Hami !
ton began his daily task of trying to be
cheerful.
When the long, long afternoon began |
to wane Hamilton found himself waiting !
eagerly for the pale-faced girl who had |
first welcomed him to Doubling Castle, |
as he had christened the hospital. As
the twilight crept in and began TO dark /
an the alley he felt an uplifting Of the |
spirit. At the sudden flare of the street /
amp he sensed her coming, and when !
1t last she stepped into the dingy little |
room it was as If the space had burst !
ntO blossom.
Lady Dlsdain, he called her in his |
thoughts, after the first few nights.
You are not getting along as well as
you should" she warned him on the !
fifth evening.
well, that's my fault, is it?' he in
luired.
81 don't know positively the nurse
.eplied 'but the day girl says you are
idgety."
II may be trife uneasy in the day
ime, but you don't have any trouble
With me, do you?" he asked.
NO. You seem TO be fairly rea-
onable."
at may turn out 10 be very unreasona-
lie when I get we'll" was his answer.
well. there viii be time enough, to
hink about that when the time comes
or you to 60"
st am going 10 take you with me when
leave he said.
Her face darkened into a frown. You
mustn't joke, Mr.. Hamilton" she said
Oddly.
I'm not Joking he said earnestly.
Win you come with me when I get
nj Of this hole? No, beg your pardon
or finding fault. they-you have all
cen very kind and good 70 me here"
Then, II We have, il I have. please
ont say anything Ike that again"
Just as you say" he answered The
avs and nights passed on and what
With fever and complications Frank
hamilton was over six weeks IN the hes
ital before he was entirely well. His
with the night nurse rad !
esumed the old friendly tone. but he
ad never given up his resolve 10 make
er his wife. They day be Left he asked
er 10 marry him. after giving her brief
: his history.
II was a hard position fer the girl and
be told him that she WAS sorry that he
saUy felt serious about il.
7 am to be married when graduate
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