A Girl in Ten Thousand | Page 5

you can to be agreeable, won't
you?"

"No," said the doctor; "I shall growl like a bear with a sore head, when
I see women who ought to be content with sweet home duties
struggling and pining to go out into the world."
The last words had scarcely left the doctor's lips before the dining-room
door was opened, and Effie, accompanied by her friend, entered the
room.
Dorothy Fraser was about twenty-eight years of age; she was tall; she
had a fair, calm sort of face; her eyes were large and gray, her mouth
sweet. She had a way of taking possession of those she spoke to, and
she had not been two minutes in the shabby little sitting-room before
Dr. and Mrs. Staunton were looking at her earnestly and listening to her
words with respect.
Dorothy sat near Mrs. Staunton.
"I am very glad to know you," she said, after a pause. "Effie has talked
to me over and over again about you."
"May I ask how long you have known Effie?" interrupted Dr. Staunton.
"Well, exactly a week," replied Miss Fraser. "I have been home a week,
and I am going to stay another week. I met Effie the night I came home,
and---- But one can cultivate a friendship in a week; don't you think so,
Dr. Staunton?"
"Perhaps, perhaps," said the doctor in a dubious voice. "I am slow in
making friends myself. It is the old-fashioned way of country folk."
"Oh, pray don't speak of yourself as old-fashioned, Dr. Staunton; and
don't run down country folk, I see so many of them at the hospital. For
my part, I think they are worth twenty of those poor London people,
who are half starved in body, and have only learned the wicked side of
life."
"Poor creatures!" said Mrs. Staunton. "I wish you would tell us
something about the hospital, my dear. It is vastly entertaining to hear

all about sick people."
"No; now pardon me," said the doctor; "you will do nothing of the kind,
Miss Fraser. There are not many sick folk about here, but what few
there are I have got to look after, and my thoughts are bothered enough
about them and their sicknesses, so I would rather, if you please, turn
our conversation to people who are not ill. The wife here is a bit
nervous, too, and she is never the better for hearing people talk about
what they call 'bad cases.' I think it is the worst thing in the world for
people to keep talking of their maladies, or even about other people's
maladies. My motto is this, 'When you are ill, try and see how soon you
can get well again, and when you are well, try to keep so. Never think
of illness at all.'"
Miss Fraser looked fully at the doctor while he was talking. A slight
frown came between her eyebrows. Effie's bright dark eyes were fixed
on her friend.
"Illness interests me, of course," Dorothy said, after a pause; "but I
won't talk of it. There are many other things, as you say, just as vital."
"Well, at any rate," said Mrs. Staunton, "Miss Fraser can tell us how
she came to be a nurse----"
"For my part," interrupted Dr. Staunton, "I think it is a great pity that
girls like you, Miss Fraser, should take up that sort of life. Lady girls
are not suited to it; for one who is fitted for the life, there are fifty who
are not. If you could only guess how doctors hate to see lady nurses in
possession of a case. She is a fine lady through it all; she thinks she is
not, but she is. Do you suppose she will wash up the cups and plates
and spoons as they ought to be washed and kept in a sick person's room?
and do you fancy she will clean out the grate, and go down on her
knees to wash the floor? Your fine lady nurse won't. There is a case of
infection, for instance,--measles or scarlet fever,--and the nurse comes
down from London, and she is supposed to take possession; but one of
the servants of the house has to go in to clean and dust and arrange, or
the sickroom is not dusted or cleaned at all. That is your lady nurse;
and I say she is not suited to the work."

Miss Fraser turned pale while the doctor was speaking.
"You must admit," she said, when he stopped and looked at her,--"you
must admit, Dr. Staunton, that every lady nurse is not like that. If you
have an infection case in your practice, send for me. I think I can prove
to you that there are some ladies who are too truly women to