Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-15

Dr Jared Wells was short, STOUT am
sandy. The toes of his shoes Always - -
cd nm AZ the tips; his nose turned Wy as"
His ewes were light blue and very p,o
pent He was what Is called an aiho,'.oN
Young man, and he told all MS ai'oi'o"
m his friends, who liked him-ano ionse'
a. ,ooh hin, a lesson He learned the les
con IN time. hut IL was not through 'hose
same friends, but through mere gin
Dr :Jared Wells was house surgeon q.
st. James Hospital, and II cannot pe ue''ieN
,hat ,bis was A responsible position LOT 81
youny a musician; nor that he hiled MS
nost successfully And the girl In ques-
tion was the head nurse. She was very
unlike the doctor. In the first place she
was an inch or two taller than ne, ana she
had a strongly built figure, with proao
shoulders a straight back, ana hrm' slehD
der waist Her hands and feet were no'ice-
ably well-shaped, and her skin hao the
smooth, hne-grained appearance that care
full grooming alone can give Her eyes
were brown merry eyes they We're, snaue :.
or two deeper in tint than the apunudht
dark-brown hair upon which was always
perched the little white cap. She mad peeh
head nurse at the hospital for TWO years
now. The staff had recommended her
name to the board. saying rather unusual
things about her capability and efficiency.
And she had not disappointed them. she
had proved equal to any emergency ana
was beloved of everybody about the nos
pital.
When / say everybody, l am leaving Dr.
Jared Wells out of the question; but even
ne was manifestly interested in her. rms
was chiefly because she baff1ed his cur1os-
ity. He had understood that all her eX-
perience had been gained at st. James,
but there was times when she showed eVi-
dences of wider knowledge. once, at
~. ,-ntf hn hnh
DIR. Jared concerning an incision He had
acted ipon the advice, and by so doing
had gr, lily FASTENED the recovery OF the
patient.
Once or twice also she had disobeyed his
orders at critical times, always showing
better judgment than his own, so he had let
the offerses pass unnoticed. This carefully
framed question brought forth nothing be-
yond the fact that she studying hard,
and that her father had been physic! an.
And the more interested he became, the
more pains he took to conceal his interest,
all of which the head nurse saw, and by
which she was secretly amused.
Having no family standing of his own, he
desired to marry family" And to this gift
of the gods she must add many other desir-
able attributes, or exist In this cold world,
unbeloved, and unwed by DIR. Jared. She
must, of course, be beautiful. Though
aware that he was not exactly a handsome
man, DIR. Jared thought that he could rea
sonably expect his wife to have good looks.
Then, she must have intellect
Il shall expect my wife" said the doctor
one day, when he was helping the head
nurse roll bandages-'I shall expect my
wife to be up in all the literature and
movements of the day, which i have not the
time to follow. Not that l wish a blue
stocking" he added hastily, but woman
who knows something, and can be modest
about it"
Lastly, he hoped that she would have
some settled income of her own so that,
should complications arise there would al
ways be a way out. In fact, he rather in
sisted upon this last thing.
"A woman should always have money of
her own" he said, 80 that she would never
become a burden to her husband"
Now the head nurse possessed but one of
these qualities, he thought. She was beau
tiful But he was not at all sure that she had
intellect, other than an unprofessional one,
of course, which was not at all the kind CT
intellect he wanted. Also, she had no fam
lily or social position. OF this he was sure,
because she never spoke of it. She would
certainly have mentioned 1t If her family
were of any consequence. And. also, money
she had mott Else why should she be slaV-
ing head nurse at st. James?
1t was, therefore, with decidedly uneasy