The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-07-11
CHAPTER NV

YeS, Miss Armstrong" Tran almost choked with reverent grat- itude. "I1l be as self-effacing as -as one of those bugs the re- search laboratories never have been able to find"
 She meant it with all her soul. But unfortunately, Tran was one to whom the unpredictable seemed fated to happen.
 For the three months that fol- lowed Tran continued to be gener- tlly known as Utility"
 Which means that, by misfortune of being the junior probationer in the training school if only by three days - she continued to be at the beck and call of every one.
 But after her talk with Miss Armstrong, she ran errands and did chores with the glowing en- thusiasm of religious fanatic It is true that at times she light ened her labors with visions of a radiant future - the day when Dr. Stephen Sargent, entering his operating room - White-capped and gowned and rubber-gloved for action-Would look about him and demand in that lord-of creation tone which one of the older nurses had told Tran simply made you shake in your shoes, But where is Miss Dearborn? I specifically asked for Miss Dearborn for this operation, did I not? Find Miss Dearborn for me at once"
 On those rare occasions when she passed him in the corridors striding along with that way he had of knowing that the world was his oyster, and looking, as always, almost spectacularly fresh and scrubbed and vital and effi- .ient-Tran, mindful of Miss Arm strong's advice, made herself as nconspicuous as possible.
 Not that life for Tran was all made up of running errands. There were classes: anatomy, chemistry, biology, psychology.
 Tran took these courses in her stride, although scholarship here was much more exacting busi- ness than during her earlier school days - at Miss Brands, or during those later years when Aunt Clara had left her casually a year at school in Germany or in France or in Italy ITO ground you In languages, my dear. No gentle woman is really educated unless she speaks at least three foreign tongues"
 But learning from books had always been easy for Tran .. If it were all as simple as that! If 1t were not for remembering not to notice things that were funny, for instance.
 It was the demonstration class with Miss Philibin that she liked best.
 The demonstration room was d complete ward in miniature, with cu5icle bed, sterilizer, cabinets full of all the necessary paraphernalia Of nursing . Even a patient - the long suffering dummy, whom probationers of former years had named "Griselda" because of the Spartan fortitude with which she underwent the most narrowing or deals. Griselda's eyes were blue and staring in her pink wooden lace, and she met clumsy student assaults upon her padded person with a set smirk of forgiveness.
 In the demonstration class you earned to make ped so that the heetS lay smooth and tight, with leatly mitered corners, the closed md of the pillows turned toward he door, and the castors parallel with the head and boot of the bed, With the Stolid cooperation of Griselda, you learned to move and bathe patient in bed. You learned how to prepare a patient Tor various types of medical ex- animation, how to give a hypo- dermic, how to prepare trays for the most exacting physician.
 You learned everything, in fact, that you would later be required to do for living patients Above all, you learned the mean ing of surgical cleanliness-Which IS as much beyond ordinary clean Illness as the heavens are above the earth.
 Then there were the glorified hours when - under the super vision of a graduate nurse, you were allowed to go into the wards and help in little humble proba- tionary ways - like getting beds ready for ether patients, for in- stance, or carrying trays to con- valescants. Once or twice Tran was allowed to help one of the graduate nurses prepare patient for pre-operatiVe examination. This was standing on the threshold of the great adventure-as near as she could hope to get for months Not until the end Of student nurses first year did Saint Vim cents permit her to go into an operating room.
 On such occasions Tran walked on air and almost burst with un- spoken questions; for asking queS- tions in the presence of patients was not tolerated. And there were some of the senior nurses who did not en- courage it at any time. Tran won dered sometimes if that was because even they did not know quite all the answers Miss Miller did, of
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