It was fun to be talking to Dr. Bear this way. He was accepting her as an equal, sort of....
"I'm tired. Did two bad carcinomas this morning. Breasts. Two ruptured appendices, and a gall-bladder, and I've a cold."
"Then why not wait and go over me in the morning, sir?"
"Because I'm the parent of an electric dynamo," he growled and the nurse and Dr. Sterling, Junior, reappeared.
"What are you waiting for?" Dr. Bear frowned at the pupil nurse.
"To hand you what you want, sir." she replied woodenly.
"You can't. What I want is rest. My son will hand me what I need. You go back to the ward."
The nurse backed out hesitantly. Miss Kerr had said every nurse in the building must permit no doctor to approach any patient without being present all of the time ... but ... but....
Mrs. Witherspoon's, "Nurse! Tend to me...." and then "Hurry, nurse!" sent the girl running.
Dr. Bear put his stethoscope carefully to his ears and listened to Rose Standish's chest.
"Do everything you ought to. Don't make me ask you," he ordered.
She inflated, deflated, said "A ... A ... A...." held her breath, turned so that he could listen through her back. Repeated it all for Dr. Sterling, Junior, who listened carefully to her heart.
"'Two physicians at the oar will row you to the Stygian shore,'" he quoted.
Miss Standish laughed, and Dr. Cub Sterling gave both of them a harassed stare. They sobered obediently.
The examination was thorough, painstaking and consumed almost half an hour. At its conclusion Dr. Sterling, Junior, said a very clipped, "Thank you, Miss Standish," and vanished. And Rose knew how deeply grateful he was, really.
"He'll explode some day. Thank you, my dear. Thank you very much."
He took her thin little hand in his capable one and growled:
"You are nervous, aren't you? I'm going to tell Mattus to give you a bromide, if you need it." And then he squeezed her hand gratefully and uttered, for the edification of the ward, a very professional, "Good night, Miss Standish."
Her reply was professional, but she put her hand under the cover and squeezed it herself.
Dr. Bear was a darling. It had been sweet the way he had explained Dr. Sterling's attitude and then thanked her himself.
When this was all over, how many real friends she would have gained. But she mustn't forget that she was here for a purpose. Perhaps if she took a short nap now, she would be in better trim for the real thing ... if it came....