The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1920-10-15

pEeAkEEAE tray QebuneQ LOT TOOm
4. 9SurBe." said the supervisor
q her impersonAl military manner
you are relieved. Go TO the dor
ditory now and at Z report TO the
Tight Supervisor Henry. You are
10 take Nurse Boudette's place in
he Women's free ward; see is call.
ID home by the sudden illness OF
Ter mother. / will take the tray
VINO Is 1t for?"
Room IL. Very we'll, Super
Itbor. SuperfIuous conversation
between the nurses and superiors
was discouraged in the hospital,
particularly any discussion of ex-
p1tcit orders. So NurEe Padget.
surrendering the napkin covered
tray marched like a soldier down
the long corridor and the long
stairway and straight TO her room
ntthe detached dormitory.
Evelyn Padget was in her last
year of her training course. As
she sat at her window abstractedly
gazing out over the city. spread
clean in the MORNING light on
three sides OF Hospital Hill, It oc-
Cured to her that her new detail
carried with It something very like
an honor, for Mazda BOudette was
head nurse in the woman's free
ward, and two-year graduate
and never before since Evelyn had
been id the hospital had trainer
been left in charge OF any WARD
even In an emergency.
al suppose : ought TO be great
1ui to old McKlintok. sOliloquiSed
Me RirI. Then she proceeded to
emonstrate her delight by doing
ome3hing that three-year trainers
ire Supposed to be all through
ithLshe began to cry, quietly
ut earnestly.
For ten days Nurse Padget had
been taking care OF Hugh Morris
otherwise and professionally des-
iFnated as room Ia. Hugh had
been brought back from France
mixed UP with the muscles of his
neck and silver OF shrapnel
Lately the silver has been acting
oueeriy, and Morris doctor had
Iideeided that 1t had best come out
81 TINT before It made serious
trouble for the ex.solider's YER
Itebrae. So there had been an op-
Grafton. with much subsequent
ififfning with bRndages, etc, and
With the collateral hunger for
cod ding which every big boy mar
ooned on bed Of convalesence ex-
sperienceB.
Zen days is not long in the view
point OF geologist or Of an anti
dnarian society. But in, the 81.
6Iihlel salient, or in the life OF a
or a lass, it can work stuDen-
ous changes. Yesterday Room
6urteen had said:
Nurse, do you know who you
Remind me Of? Well, it's my
mother-her picture when she was
strl.P And he had been very
serious mad earnest about II, too
thoitsh as a matter of fact Evelyn
"a sefnbled that long-gone mother
Tot at all.
:. Eyelyn's heart had jumped right
M into her throat when Room
Fourteen said that, for the girl
doesn't live who can't snalyze the
meaning of this particular compli-
fdenf. She had laughed lightly
and replied, Does that mean that
YOU want sugar on your bread and
butter? Well you can't have II
unless the doctor says so"
And she got herself quickly out
of the room with the luncheon
htnRs-but in the long deserted
corridor she hastily kissed the cor
ner q the napkin. he had wiped
Ills lips with.
And now Room Fourteen would
5e going out. Certainly inside
Teek-and what chance was there
81 Roudette's returning within
ffiat time? None of course. She
would not be able to see him again
The rigid hospital discipline would
preYent that-and even IL this
ere not 30, how could a self-re-
Bpecting girl go throwing herself
IN q patients way without genuine
reasons in the line of duty? II
only MAZDA Boudette's mother had
taken some other time to be i'll?
AT this thought Evelyn sat up
very sudden and very straight.
Mazda had no mother! She was
al orphan and herself had told
syelyn that she had not been on
speaking terms with her step
mother for two years. There was
something queer, then, about this
sudden absence of Nurse Boudette.
Nurse Padget's little head all at
( once became a perfect whirl OF ex-
citing specuIations, as the result of
(which, after she had thought and
thought till almost noon, Evelyn
sook her courage in her hand and
vent to see the supervisor.
At one o'clock Miss McClintok
wired a certain Mrs. Georgiana
Boudette in a neighboring state:
s,Is your illness serious enough to
require presence of, daughter?"
At 9 came this reply: Have no
daughter. Wouldn't let Ida B..
touch me II / was dying"
AT 1870 Miss McClIntock, stern
and inouisltorial. sat in her office
With Nurse Halliburton, the pref
tiast girl OF the training personnel
and the most troublesome that had
ever managed to remain for a
third year In that institution. They
Ss{ad been cloBeted for fifteen min.
1fes. now and Miss McClintock was
stunning up like judge. She
said: so you admit, nurse, that
yo6 knew the patient in room IA
BY sight, and-with your usual
Isusceptibllity-were, as your kind
pf a girl calls 1t, crazy about