A Match for Sister Maggy by Betty Neels Page B

to his mother. ‘If I didn’t know better, I’d say that Maggy was wasted as a nurse, wouldn’t you, Mama?’
    Mevrouw Doelsma wouldn’t agree to this. ‘Maggy’s a born nurse, but it would be nice for her,’ she went on pensively, ‘if she married a man with a Rolls-Royce.’
    Maggy turned her head and looked intently at a view which hardly merited her prolonged scrutiny, and Dr Doelsma eyed her back with a slight smile and decided twinkle in his eyes. He said briskly, ‘That shouldn’t be too difficult.’
    He got out of the car, and Maggy slid back to her own seat as he got in. ‘Shall I get in beside Mevrouw Doelsma?’ she asked, giving him a very fleeting look. But her patient declared that she was perfectly happy as she was, and Maggy was to stay where she was. She settled her length into the comfortable seat. ‘Thank you, Doctor. It was wonderful.’ He answered her with some trivial remark about the car, and by the time the car was on the main road they had entered into a lively discussion concerning various aspects of motoring, so that she forgot to be shy.
    Once on the high road, clear of traffic, the doctor gathered speed. There was no limit on the motorway; theneedle hovered on a hundred and sixty kilometers, and he asked. ‘Nervous?’
    â€˜Not in the least,’ Maggy retorted, ‘but what about Mevrouw Doelsma?’
    The little lady in the back seat laughed. ‘I enjoy it. Pratt disapproves of me when I tell him to travel faster, but Paul knows how I like it.’
    They flashed past a signpost and Dr Doelsma slowed down and turned into a narrow road.
    â€˜We’ll go back to Heerenveen across country,’ he said. ‘The country’s nothing like your Highlands, Maggy, but it’s very pleasant.’
    â€˜That burst of speed was most enjoyable, Doctor.’ Maggy sounded sedate. ‘You’ll be holding the same certificate as myself, I think.’
    â€˜Hemel!’ He was half laughing. ‘I’ve been guilty of showing off.’
    â€˜I was showing off too,’ said Maggy, ‘but it’s plain that you’re a better driver than I am.’
    They all returned to Oudehof in excellent spirits, and later at dinner the doctor made himself so pleasant that as Maggy went upstairs, leaving him and his mother together, she reflected that she hadn’t enjoyed herself so much for a long time.
    Mother and son settled down to their usual game of cards, and after a few minutes Mevrouw Doelsma remarked, ‘Maggy drives very well, Paul.’
    Paul took a trick. ‘Yes, Mother. I noticed that you were sufficiently impressed to suggest that she should find a husband with a Rolls-Royce.’
    His mother looked at her cards, wondering if she dared cheat. ‘Yes, dear, such a good idea.’ She cheated, and took the next trick, and he tried not to laugh.
    â€˜Mama, I have a Rolls-Royce.’
    She looked up smilingly. ‘Yes, dear, that’s what I meant,’ she said.
    Paul stared at her. ‘Mother dear, it has taken a whole evening of bright conversation to convince Maggy that that was not what you meant.’
    His mother cheated again. ‘The poor child! I only wanted to put an idea into your head, Paul.’
    Paul took a trick and said, ‘My dear, you surely know by now that the only ideas I act upon my own?’ He smiled at her. ‘If you cheat cleverly enough, you’ll win this game!’
    Maggy came back presently, and sat in a nice old Friesian chair, painted all over with small flowers. Her uniform looked very severe against it, but she suited the chair very well; it had been made for big men and women.
    The doctor stacked the cards neatly.
    â€˜I must leave at six tomorrow morning, so we had better settle the arrangements for next week. I’ll get an appointment for you, Mother, and Pratt can drive you both down. Stay for three or four days, and