The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1914-02-10

HER FIRST CASE
BY BRUCE. WATSON.

Il shall sleep an hour. Draw the
shades. and leave some drinking wa
ter beside me, and do get out for a
walk You've been losing your rosy
cheeks the last week, and | only
chose you from all the other girls on
account Of them-and your smile.
That's better. Run along now"
Miss Livingston waved her nurse
away. GROSSLY. She was glad to go,
too. Hour after hour shut in the hotel
suite with her elderly patient, did not
add sunshine to Nan Gleason's life,
any more than 1t helped the color to
stay in her cheeks.
She slipped her long blue cloak
around her and went out without the
bonnet. Somehow, she had not grown
used to the nurses bonnet yet. 1t was
only eight weeks since she had left
the hospital
Nearly all of her class were younger
women. She was twenty-nine. They
had asked her, these girls of twenty
one and twentyfour. why she had ia
ken up nursing SO late. And she had
told the truth, how there were six
younger children, and she had stayed
at home, helping her mother bring
them up. Every since she could re-
member, there had been a new baby
every few years for her to care for,
and trundle around.
Then at last they had grown up, old
enough to care for themselves, and
when the last, Teddie, their baby,
went into high school, Nan had calmly
announced her plans to the family,
and entered the big gray stone City
hospital for her training
She had enjoyed the entire course,
too, especially as she went forward
and was chosen at some Of the major
operations for her steady hand, and
quick responsiveness. That was how
she came to meet Hal Thurber.
There had been a motor accident.
1t was late at night, and they rushed
the injured to the operating room.
Little Kate Caxton had reused her.
There were six other nurses in the
anteroom when she stepped out of the
elevator, and they were just carrying
one of the men by on a stretcher.
She had never forgotten his face as
he lay there unconscious, his dark cur
ly hair damp with preparation, his
face curious ivory color from the
mingling Of tan and palor.
When the surgeon chose her for his
case, she felt her first throb of
anxiety. The scent of the ether made
her faint as she watched them hold
the cone over his face, but from habit
she moved about, obeying orders I'M
til the thing was done.
Afterwards she had been assigned to
nurse him but it had only been for
two days. His mother had arrived
from Washington with special nurses,
money, everything. After a week his
case was only a memory at the City
hospital, but to Nan, it was the one
thing that stood out in her mind from
her three years there.
She had never had a love romance
in her life. There had not been time.
Two of her younger sisters had come
to her first with their shy, sweet
stories of first love, and she had
helped make their wedding outfits.
And that night, after they had left
her with him, Thurber had come out
of the anesthetic restless, dreamy,
dazed with pain and shock, and calling
for someone over and over again, so
pleadingly in his deep toned rich voice,
so imploringly, so tenderly that it had
made her thrill just to hear him.
Nobody knew, not even himself, how
she knelt beside him and held his
poor, aching head on her shoulder,
talking to him softly, smoothing back
his hair with her cool fingers, hush
ing him until he was quiet and drowsy,
even letting him kiss her
The next day he had been himself,
with no memory at all of his delirum,
no suspicion that the quiet, calm faced
nurse at his bedside had gained bar
first knowledge of what love can give
from his rawlings the night before. She
had been left alone with him for a
minute or two just before he went
away He was carried down on the
stretcher, still helpless and In pain,
but he had smiled up at her with
touch of his half reckless challenge at
the cuff fate had dealt him.
Good bye nurse" he said pleas
ant dreams"
The color had risen In her face, and
just for an instant their eyes met, she
wondering what hidden meaning his
words held, he with the provocative
mischief in his smile and gaze Then
they had taken him away
That had been all. yet it remained
the one splendid bit of romance in her
whole life. She knew she could never
give to another man all of her love,
not with the memory of that night,
with his words in her ears, his hands
reaching out for her, holding her fast
and close to him.
The week before her leaving the
hospital, the head surgeon had sent
for her to take a chronic case, as he
said, bit dryiy.
1T is the rich Miss Livingston. She
thinks she has various ailments, and
always carries a trained nurse as part
of her encourage. Her last one gave
out Nervous prostration Went home
to Canada She is very irritable, very
excitable, and is going to California
and later on to the islands, | under
stand. If you care to take the case,
/ can get it for you"
I'll CO. said Nan, eagerly. 1t had
sounded like heaven then. No opera
tions, no horrors for awhile, nothing
but a cross old woman to cater to.
She had managed well with her. Her
fussing and unceasing ordering around
had been almost q comic relief from
the suppression of the hospital lire.
The long overland trip west was a
delight, and she found that the old
lady began to take a certain grim
pleasure in watching her nurse enjoy
the sights that she never even saw.
Tell me what you're looking at. !"
she would say, closing her own eyes,
and Nan would sit by the car window
describing everything she saw that
appealed to her.
You've got ideas and sense of
beauty too, said Miss Livingston,
tersely, land you're the first nurse l
ever had that was a human being.
You can go on to the islands with me
if you like
They were in Los Angeles now, at a
wonderful hotel set in a great garden
OF palms and roses. with the sea
breaking on the shore below Nan suit
across the green lawns down to the
path along the shore. 1t was nearly
eleven. She would have a full hour
to walk and rest hpfnra Iunnha0n Miss