Nurse Jane

“ A HAPPY WARRIOR THE Field Hospital in which Jane was at work was now seeing its busiest days. A steady stream of wounded men poured into it, day and night, frequently augmented after a serious engagement at the Front by such a torrent of extra cases that every resource was heavily overtaxed. Surgeons and nurses worked to the limit and beyond it; they kept on long after they should have been released. In Jane’s whole experience in this place no doctor or nurse ever gave up and was sent to the rear until actually forced to do so, by pure physical inability longer to continue. ”

“ Nurse Rosemary Gray is getting on capitally. She is making herself indispensable to the patient, and he turns to her with a completeness of confidence which causes her heart to swell with professional pride.
Poor Jane has got no further than hearing, from his own lips, that she is the very last person in the whole world he would wish should come near him in his blindness. ”

“ It is the aura which to a greater or less degree surrounds every [315] true nurse, and Jane, in acquiring it, had but learned the rudiments of her profession. Yet perhaps she had rather more than the ordinary capacity for divination of the peculiar and individual necessities of the men under her care, for certain it was that most of them preferred her to any of the others, accomplished and devoted though they all were. ”

“ She smiles and sleeps perpetually and seems thoroughly wholesome. Were she to remain in her present robust condition there would be little need of my services, I assure you. But—”
“But what?” asked Beth anxiously, as the nurse hesitated.
“All babies have their ills, and little Jane cannot escape them. The rainy season is approaching and dampness is trying to infants. There will be months of moisture, and then—I shall be needed.”
“Have you been in California before?” asked Beth, impressed by Mildred’s positive assertion. ”

“ Aunt Jane sighed. "It doesn't seem right for one person to have everything."
"He'll have to have things—for a while," replied Dr. Carmon. "He'll have to have what he wants—till I find out what's wrong with him.... He wants Miss Canfield—and I can't take the risk of having him upset!" He spoke a little brusquely at the end.
Aunt Jane's feathers ruffled themselves. "I don't know what call he has to expect to have any particular nurse!" she said. "We shall take good care of him, whatever nurse he has!"
"Yes—yes—of course." Dr. Carmon was testy and placating. ”

“ A nurse came in from the waiting-room. "A man is here—a Mr. Dalton. He wants to know if he can see you?"
"Yes, I'll see him," said Aunt Jane.
"He said he could come again if you are too busy." The nurse waited.
"No, I'm not busy—no busier than I always [Pg 198] am, I guess. You tell him to come in."
He came in with quick step and a little light in his face—as if a glint of sun shone on a dark field.
Aunt Jane looked at him approvingly. "You're doing first-rate!"
He laughed. "I don't have to try. Luck is coming my way now!"
"Folks generally have to go fully half-way to meet it," said Aunt Jane. ”

“ It was crowded with people, and an exclamation of pleasant surprise burst from the duchess and her daughter when two females entered the dungeon, each with a heavy bundle under her arm. In the foremost Lady Jane recognised her old nurse, and the other had long been chief tyring-woman to the duchess. Never were human beings so welcome, never two beings “so happy without knowing why,” as these old warm-hearted women.
“There,” said the nurse, holding the Lady Jane in her arms, and kissing her fondly between the words; “there, I say, you with the crusty face, roll in the coffer—that will do!” ”

“ I always think of you as my dear old nurse, Christine, whom I sometimes fancy I can remember. Did you not come to me once in the Bois when another nurse had charge of me, and kiss, and cry over me, and give me a quantity of bon-bons? Some such scene comes up to me from the misty past, and you had such bright black eyes and so much color in your cheeks, and looked so pretty. Was that you, and why did you not stay with me always? Write immediately and answer all these questions, and tell me you will come to your loving
“Reinette.” ”

“ Jane agreed, “But remember who he is—one of the very most famous American surgeons we have over here. And modern surgery does do miracles—in the right hands. I never cease to wonder at it.”
[344] One nurse was like another to the busy chief surgeon, or so it seemed—they couldn’t be sure that he would ever know any of them again if he saw them after this was over. But on the fourth day of his stay, as somebody called sharply—“Miss Ray!”—Jane noted that he looked suddenly over at her with that quick, penetrating glance of his which was keeping everybody on the jump. ”

“ Then she began to scream and call,
“Oh nurse, come quick! Oh! Oh! I’ll fall!”
Quickly her nurse came running out, And anxiously she looked about.
“Where are you, Jane? Where can you be?” “Here I am, nurse, up in the tree.”
[117]
Poor nurse was in a dreadful fright.
“Oh Jane!” she cried. “That is not right.”
“Come down! If your mamma should see
You know how worried she would be.”
Jane laughed aloud to see her fright, She thought it such a funny sight.
Now higher up the tree she went, On nurse’s further torment bent.
[118]
“Now look!” ”

“ And she could hardly refrain from loud laughter at the thought. When she had got her frock on she sat down, and laying her arm over the fat pocket asked Jane to touch up her curls: and while this operation was going on she began to talk to the nurse.
"Nurse, should you think it a very nice thing to go to a dinner party and sit in chairs all round a large room, where the coloured covers are taken away and everything looks very gay, and so tidy, nobody is allowed to do anything but smile, and talk, and wear white kid gloves?" ”

“ But lean back, for you must not be seen if you are supposed to be still in Cairo, waiting to go up the Nile. And, look here"—the doctor put his head in at the carriage window—"very plain luggage, mind. The sort of thing nurses speak of as 'my box'; with a very obvious R. G. on it!"
"Thank you, Boy," whispered Jane. "You think of everything."
"I think of YOU," said the doctor. And in all the hard days to come, Jane often found comfort in remembering those last quiet words.
CHAPTER XVII ENTER—NURSE ROSEMARY
Nurse Rosemary Gray had arrived at Gleneesh. ”

“ For several days Jane lay in her bed, looking like a wax woman, too weak to lift her hand. Doctor Grant ordered her to stay just where she was until she wanted to get up.
"She's the kind that goes through hell without flinching, and collapses at the sight of heaven," he said to Jerry. "Keep her quiet; it's a complete nervous collapse, but she's got a fine constitution and she'll come around quickly."
The baby was improving as rapidly as he became ill, so Doctor Grant left on the night train, promising to come back on Sunday.
The trained nurse looked after Baby, while Anna took care of Jane. ”

“ Pelton. She's going to be in Room 5. Take good care of her."
The nurse held out her hand with a smile. And the little woman got up. "I've got a bag here somewhere—? That's it—yes. Thank you! I seem all kind of upset, somehow. I didn't know a hospital would be like this!"
Aunt Jane watched her with a smile as she went from the room. There was a gentle look in her eyes. Then she got up, with the card in her hand, and moved toward the front room. She had become serene and austere.
A tall, thin man rose courteously. "I am Dr. Carmon's patient. I understand a room has been reserved for me?" ”

“ A great detective once said that “every mystery has a simple solution”—meaning, of course, that the solution is simple when once discovered. Therefore, the puzzling mystery of the disappearance of baby Jane and her two nurses, followed later by the vanishment of Mr. Bulwer Runyon, was due to the one-time idiosyncracy of a certain Señor Cristoval, happily deceased, rather than to any supernatural agency.
Until now we have only known Mildred Travers, as she called herself, in a casual way. We know that she was considered a competent nurse and had proved her capability in the care of baby Jane. ”

“ Her nurse is come, and has no particular charm either of person or manner; but as all the Hurstbourne world pronounce her to be the best nurse that ever was, Mary expects her attachment to increase. What fine weather this is! Not very becoming perhaps early in the morning, but very pleasant out of doors at noon, and very wholesome — at least everybody fancies so, and imagination is everything. To Edward, however, I really think dry weather of importance. ”

“ Dalmain. Believe me, when you have been with her for five minutes, you will find it just the same as having me. And how do you know she has not also been in Sightless Land? A nurse would do that sort of thing, because she was very keen on her profession, and on making a success of her case. The woman who loves you would do it for love of you."
"It would be like her," said Garth; and leaned back, a look of deep contentment gathering on his face. "Oh, Jane! Jane! She is coming! She is coming!"
Nurse Rosemary looked at the clock. ”

“ Undeniable that she has a smiling way with her, and a gift of sympathetic enjoyment that carries off the old, old dialogues, even imparting freshness to the tale of the patient in extremis who persuades his attractive nurse into a death-bed marriage, treatment that the slightest experience of fiction should have warned her to be invariably curative. Perhaps the best of the tales is "Jane," which tells very amusingly the results of a hospital strike that in actual life would, I imagine, have provided little humorous relief. ”

“ Here, all about her, were the tangible evidences of her triumph, which was also a defeat. A little glow of service revived in her. If Johnny lived, it was a small price to pay for a life. If he died, she had given him his chance. The operating-room nurses were very kind. They liked her courage, but they were frightened, too. She, like the others, had been right, but also she was wrong.
They paid her tribute of little kindnesses, but they knew she must go.
It was the night nurse who told Twenty-two that Jane Brown was in the operating-room. ”

“ There were only two beds in the nursery now, Jane's and her nurse's; and there was no kennel, for Nana also had passed away. She died of old age, and at the end she had been rather difficult to get on with; being very firmly convinced that no one knew how to look after children except herself. Once a week Jane's nurse had her evening off; and then it was Wendy's part to put Jane to bed. ”

“ Wycherly, "it was understood that she was to be trained for a servant; the doctor vetoed that—said she would never be strong enough. Then a charming lady here suggested having her trained as some very superior sort of nurse—children's nurse, but I question whether her genius lies in that direction. Personally, I can think of nothing very suitable for Jane-Anne except to delight me and get strong; but of course one must be practical. She is extraordinarily receptive. She takes pleasure in every kind of beauty, and she is quite singularly susceptible to beautiful verse. ”

“ Are you his nurse?" asked the young wife with trembling lips.
"I am his nurse, and I assure you he is doing very well," answered Maud with her pleasant, winning smile. "When he finds you by his side I am sure his recovery will be rapid. ”

“ Graham?” and Jimmie spoke vehemently, while his eyes kindled with a strange gleam. “Why don’t you go as nurse? You might be the means of untold good to the poor fellows who need such care as you could give.”
“I have thought of it,” said Annie, while Rose exclaimed:
“You turn hospital nurse,—ridiculous! You never shall, so long as I can prevent it. Shall she, Tom?” And she appealed to the latter, who had just come in. “Shall Annie go into those horrid hospitals?” ”

“ How's Miss Jane?" As he made the inquiry his eyes kindled and a slight color suffused his cheeks.
"She'll be better for seein' ye," the nurse answered with a knowing look. Then in a louder and more positive tone, "Oh, ye needn't stare so with them big brown eyes o' yourn. Ye can't fool old Martha, none o' you young people kin. Ye think I go round with my eyelids sewed up. Miss Jane knows what she wants—she's proud, and so are you; I never knew a Cobden nor a Cavendish that warn't. I haven't a word to say—it'll be a good match when it comes off. Where's that Meg? Good-by, doctor. ”

“ If you don't do a whole-hearted job, I can't trust you. He is our baby, you know—not mine."
"All right," he sighed. "When do I begin?"
"To-morrow. Come up now, and the nurse and I will show you how to manage him. He almost never wakes up," she reassured him.
The next day they inaugurated the plan. Jane had an early breakfast, before Jerry was up, bathed and fed baby, and left him asleep on the balcony. Then she fled to her haven, worked until a few minutes before eleven, when she went back to the studio. ”

“ Jane said, with so much feeling that Bobs dared not look at her.
Life in the new home fell into its wonted routine. They became accustomed to the new luxuries with the usual ease and celerity. The baby's régime was, for the present, the nurse's affair, except for certain essential contributions on Jane's part. Jerry's sittings began, so Jane took up the old habit of running away to the white room at Mrs. Biggs's, as soon as the house and her son were started on the day. ”