"Percy not turned up? I must say I consider that you could have done better for yourself She was stung into saying most unwisely, " Beggars can't be choosers. "

And regretted the words immediately because he said cheerfully, "I did offer to bury the hatchet; we could have done so most amicably over lunch at Wilton's. Champagne of course; I always placate my enemies with champagne--mushrooms in cream sauce, lobster thermidor, and raspberries and cream..."

Rose who had eaten a slice of toast and had a mug of tea with a tea bag for her breakfast, said crossly, "Oh, be quiet do," and then, "I'm not your enemy, I just don't like you."

"Yes, you said so and that, you weren't going to speak to me again."

"Well, I have to on the ward and it--it would be rude if I pretended not to see that you are there when you are."

He said softly, "All the time I hope, dear girl. Ah, here is your..

What is he, Rose? "

"Nothing," she snapped and turned a welcoming smile on Percy Pride.

That young man gave her a casual hullo and a rather more polite "Good morning, Sir' to Sybren who enquired innocently, " Busy, Mr. Pride? "

"Day off. Sir. Had a lazy morning, forgot I was taking Rose out actually!" He turned to her, missing Mr. Werdmer ter Sane's contemptuous look.

"You didn't mind waiting, did you. Rose? There's plenty of time, we can have a snack at the British Museum and then spend the afternoon there."

Mr. Werdmer ter Sane uttered a choked sound which he turned into a cough.

"That sounds most interesting." He gave Rose a limpid look.

"You'll enjoy that." His smile was quite nasty; she had come to dread seeing it, especially just then; she would have liked to retire to some dark isolated spot and have a good cry, but only after hitting Sybren over the head with something really hard and doing the same for the wretched Percy.

Sybren, watching her, read her thoughts very accurately, she had that kind of a face, for him at any rate. She was in for a dull day, by the end E of it she would probably not be on speaking terms with Percy. It served her right for being proud and stubborn and jumping to all the wrong conclusions. All the same he made a mental note to be around that evening, he didn't think that Percy was a young man to splash out on dinner unless he was getting something in return, an aspect which Rose, being Rose, had overlooked.

He said pleasantly, "Well, enjoy yourselves, it's a splendid day."

Which it was, only not a day to spend in a museum, thought Rose, going outside with Percy. They took the bus. He had a car, he explained, but it wasn't worth driving the short distance from the hospital and spending a fortune on parking fees. Rose, anxious to make the day a success, agreed and stood uncomplainingly between a very stout woman with a shopping bag smelling offish and a youth with a strange hair-do and a radio strapped to his belt. At least she heard the midday news.

When Percy had told Mr. Werdmer ter Sane that they would have a snack, that was exactly what he had meant. Rose, eating beans on toast and making every mouthful tell, thought waspishly of mushrooms in cream sauce and lobster thermidor, though Sybren hadn't meant a word of it, and over their coffee listened with all the interest she could summon to Percy carrying on about his career.

"Of course I don't intend to be a paediatrician," he told her.

"I'm not keen on kids; they're grubby and sick up. I shall speciali se in cardiac surgery, there's a wide field and plenty of money there."

"Is there?" Rose was a little vague; she never thought of surgery in terms of money although she was aware that surgeons for the most part were comfortably well off.

"So you'll go to one of the cardiac hospitals when you're finished at St. Bride's?"

"Naturally, St. Bride's is only a stop-gap until there is a vacancy."

"But St. Bride's does very important work-- look at little Shirley--that was a marvelous piece of surgery Mr. Werdmer ter Sane did--she'd be dead by now..."

He shrugged.

"She'll have one leg shorter than the other if she lives."

"Of course she'll live," said Rose indignantly, 'and there are such things as surgical shoes. "

"Well, don't let's bore on about work. If you're finished, shall we move into the museum?"

It appeared that Percy liked mummies. He knew a lot about them too; he lectured Rose at length about each specimen and she disliked every minute, trying not to look too closely at the remains he was so enthusiastic about, her thoughts turning more and more to lobster therm- idor. Mercifully, he stopped at teatime and marched her along to the cafeteria for a cup of tea and a sponge cake which merely sopped up the tea and left her insides empty. It was over tea that Percy told her that he had the key to a friend's flat.

"We'll nip along there," he told her, 'and have a drink--there's food in the fridge; no one will know if you don't get back to St. Bride's-I suppose you're on in the morning; well, as long as we're back before breakfast. " He rambled on happily while she sat staring at him. Was this what Sadie had meant when she had said that he wasn't quite Rose's type? She said clearly, " I think you've got it wrong. I've no intention of going to anyone's flat with you, Percy. Whatever gave you that idea? "

He lolled back in his chair, still very sure of himself.

"My dear girl, aren't you a bit out of date? Nowadays we live just as we like.. "

"Yes, we do," said Rose coldly, 'and I don't think we like the same sort of life. "

"My G.o.d, you're stuffy." The sneer on his face quite spoilt his good looks.

Rose, wishing to be fair, considered this.

"Yes, I dare say I am," she conceded.

"Thank you for a very pleasant afternoon, Percy."

She picked up her shoulder bag from beside her chair, got up and walked away, looking quite composed and under the calm seething.

She was also hungry. On the bus going back to the hospital, she tried to decide what she would do with her evening. Sadie was on duty, her other friends were either on duty too, or had dates. Fish and chips, she told herself philosophically, and the new novel a little patient's grateful parent had presented to her a few days ago. Anything would be better than spending the evening, not the night, with Percy. She shuddered strongly at the very idea, descended from the bus and went briskly across the hospital's forecourt, watched by the patient Sybren.

He strolled towards her as she crossed the entrance ahead of him, blocking her path so that she was forced to stop.

"Had a good time?"

he wanted to know blandly.

He really was the last straw.

"You again," declared Rose in a regrettably shrill voice.

"I might have known. And if you've come to gloat, you can get on with it,

but don't you dare stop me..."

The voice in which he uttered, "Now, now," would have soothed an ill-tempered baby in the throes of teething. "You don't have to say a word. I just happened to be here," he uttered the fib with a magnificent candour.

"If you could forget that you don't like me and have dinner with me? I

dislike eating on my own." He gave a fleeting thought to his solitary meals in his home and smiled very faintly.

"If you're not hungry we could cut out the lobster."

She had meant to say no but her insides rumbled in the silence following his

words and he added matter-of-factly, "You're hungry too."She gave him one of her clear looks."Yes, I am. I'll come and thank you but only--only...""As ships that pa.s.s in the night? Oh, that's understood." He turned her round smartly and made for the door.

"I'm not--I really ought..." She began and was silenced by his, "You can do whatever you need to do while I'm seeing about a table." After that he had nothing to say; she sat in the comfort of the Rolls, her head empty of thoughts, in a dreamlike state from which she felt sure she would wake presently. But she didn't; Sybren parked the car and ushered her into the restaurant with a kindly, "Off you go, I'll be here when you're ready."

She spent ten minutes doing her face and her hair and wishing that she had been wearing something smart enough for her surroundings. The pink was all right, but she had worn it several times, he must think she hadn't anything else. Apparently he didn't for when she joined him he remarked, "I like that dress better than any of the others you wear.

Pink suits you. "

She thanked him shyly and followed the head waiter to a table by a window,

nicely secluded.

"Well, now shall we have champagne c.o.c.ktails while we decide what we'll eat? His manner was just right, the old friend taking out another old friend he'd accidently met. For the whole of their delicious meal he made no mention of the hospital, or Percy Pride or Holland for that matter. He seemed to have an inexhaustible fund of small talk which needed little or no reply on her part. As they went from mushrooms to lobster and from lobster to a magnificent concoction of ice cream, chocolate and whipped cream crowned with raspberries.

Rose unwound. Sybren, filling her gla.s.s with the excellent champagne he had ordered, lifted a finger for coffee and sat back while their plates were taken away and it was brought. Only then did he ask, "Do you want to tell me about it. Rose? Regard me as a sympathetic aunt if you wish, or one of your friends at St. Bride's. It doesn't matter that you don't like me; I promise you I'll forget about it at once. You see if you bottle it up it will grow out of all proportion and you'll rake it up," and when she didn't speak, 'what did you have for lunch? Beans on toast? "

She laughed then.

"Yes, and a cup of coffee..."

"I've never liked beans since I ate them out of a tin when I was a scout."

"You were a scout?" She looked so surprised that he laughed.

"It keeps little boys out of mischief. What part of the museum did you visit?"

"The mummies. I--I didn't much care for them and it seems so rude to stare at them when they've been dead for such a long time."

"True. Young Pride is interested in them?"

"Oh yes!" She found herself smiling.

"He lectured me." She sipped her coffee and didn't look at him.

"We had tea then and he--he told me that he had the key of a friend's flat..."

She glanced at him and somehow he wasn't Mr. Werdmer ter Sane any more but someone she could talk to without feeling a fool. It was a facet of him she hadn't seen before although, loving him, she thought that she knew him very well.

"I should have thought of that, shouldn't I?"

she ended.

He said gravely: "I think that perhaps your friend Sadie would have, but you.. no. Rose. You haven't had much experience of men, have you?"

The warm friendly feeling faded. She said woodenly, "No, for obvious reasons." She was suddenly cross because he had spoilt the evening.

"And you have no need to remind me haven't I been told since I was a teenager that I. was plain homely was the word my stepmother used and she was so right men don't make pa.s.ses at homely girls, only when there's no one else available I suppose." Her voice squeaked with temper.

"You should know that."

She put down her coffee-cup and said like a small child, "Thank you for my dinner, I'd like to go back now."

Mr. Werdmer ter Sane hadn't said a word; he paid the bill, accompanied her from the restaurant saw her into the car and drove her back to St. Bride's, still without speaking. Only as he opened the door for her did he say, "Good night, Rose goodbye perhaps?" He touched her cheek with a gentle finger and got back into the car and drove away.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

lying in bed, trying to get to sleep. Rose admitted that she had been silly as well as rude; no wonder Sybren hadn't spoken to her on their way back from the restaurant. She was going to have to apologise to him; he would probably be on the ward in the morning. She shut her eyes and drifted into an uneasy sleep.

Sister was back on duty in the morning which left Rose free to attend to Shirley who despite the antibiotic was slightly feverish and pretty peevish. The registrar came during the morning, attended by a sulky Percy, who avoided Rose's eye and, most unusual for him, had nothing to say for himself. The registrar examined Shirley without haste, his face expressionless. He was worried. Rose guessed, and to tell the truth she was worried herself; the child wasn't making progress and she had been doing so well.

"We'll keep her on the antibiotic for another twenty-four hours.

Rose," the registrar told her.

"If her temperature isn't coming down by then, we'll have to think again. Mr. Werdmer ter Sane went back this morning but he'll come over again if we're worried; he didn't want Mr. Cesswell's holiday interrupted, he's not due back until Sunday."

He went away and when she had settled Shirley she went into the ward to get started on the treatments and dressings. It was a day when things went wrong; nothing important, just small irritating things; notes mislaid, a child who should have gone home, delayed, not enough sheets back from the laundry, the dispensary querying Percy Pride's prescriptions; and quite rightly too for he wrote very small and with flourishes which could be taken for anything. Rose went off duty that evening feeling that it had been a day of twice its usual length.

The rest of the week was much the same, too; although she was ready to admit to herself that she was partly to blame; try as she would, she found it quite impossible to stop thinking about Sybren, largely because she had no idea if she would ever see him again. Shirley seemed to get better although she wasn't making the progress she should and she knew that the registrar was worried about her although there was nothing he could put his finger on. Her small chest had improved and yet she was listless and very peevish, not bothering when her mother came to sit with her for hours at a stretch. Rose, going off- duty on Friday evening for the weekend, was vaguely worried about the child; the operation had been a success, there was no doubt of that, and yet Shirley wasn't doing as well as she should. Sister c.u.mmins, drinking her coffee with Rose on the Friday, voiced her unease.

"I shall be glad when Mr. Cresswell is back on Sunday; I only wish we could have got hold of Mr. Werdmer ter Sane but Mr. Farrell tells me he had to go to Munich on some urgent case and can't get here before tomorrow. Still I dare say the three of them will put their heads together. You're pale. Rose, it's a good thing you have this weekend off Rose didn't agree with her; she was going to miss seeing Sybren; he would be gone by the time she got back at midday on Monday. Well, it was her own fault; he had asked to be forgiven. She wondered why; it surely couldn't make much difference to him, she had been--what had he said? A ship which pa.s.sed in the night.

When she got to her aunt's cottage that lady eyed her severely.

"Rose, what have you been doing with yourself? You're washed out, no colour at all, all eyes and much too thin."

Rose said with a false cheerfulness, "Well, that's a good thing, I'm too fat, you know."

"Rubbish, child. Maggie, we'll have a bottle of that port the vicar gave me for Christmas, and you. Rose, sit down and eat your supper. I know it's late and you are tired, but no one ever slept on an empty stomach."