takers. I even began to hope that Grimsdyke would appear again at the front door – as indeed he might have done, with no embarrassment whatever – when I had a letter from the City General Hospital, in the East End of London.
“ Dear Dr Gordon ,
“ I should be glad if you would consider me for the post of your locum tenens, of which I heard today from Messrs. Pilcher and Perritt in Holborn. I am twenty-three years of age and qualified from the City General last December, subsequently holding the appointment of house surgeon to Mr Ernest Duff. I am now anxious to have some experience in general practice before continuing with surgery, in which I intend to specialize. Perhaps you would kindly let me know your decision as soon as you conveniently can? I would add that I possess a car.
“ Yours sincerely,
“ Nicholas Barrington,
“ BM, BCh (Oxon).”
I don’t think I had read a letter more gratefully since I opened the official envelope after my final examinations. The writer seemed sane, and wasn’t young enough to be a glorified student nor old enough to be a chronic drunkard. He sounded a little prim and precise, but that was only to be expected of an Oxford man. He had worked under Duff, who was so surgically eminent as to have two operations named after him. And even at St Swithin’s we recognized the City General students as a genially beery crowd like ourselves. Apart from this, the poor fellow’s following the will-o’-the-wisp of surgical specialization struck sympathy from my bosom: I felt that it would he nice to work with someone else who had probably failed the Primary too. Wasting no time, I took a risk and telegraphed Dr Barrington saying:
APPOINTED FORTHWITH COME IMMEDIATELY IF POSSIBLE ACCOMMODATION RATHER SHORT BUT CAN MUCK IN WITH ME UNTIL SETTLED STOP WORK HARD BUT FUN HOPE YOU DRINK BEER
“ GORDON
To which I had the reply:
ARRIVING NOON TOMORROW STOP YES I DRINK BEER
BARRINGTON
“Our troubles are over,” I told Kitten Strudwick happily that evening. “A Dr Barrington is arriving tomorrow to help us.”
“Oh, really? I wonder what he ’ll be like?”
“Soft hands and a kind heart like Dr Grimsdyke, I expect. So put on your best pair of nylons.”
“Go on with you! I didn’t think you noticed my nylons.”
“Doctors are trained to be observant, Miss Strudwick.”
“Yes,” I reflected, relaxing in the surgery chair comfortably for the first time since Dr Farquarson’s departure. “It’s going to be a bit of fun to have someone three years junior to me to kick about. I shall be able to hold my lapels and say ‘Come come, my lad – can’t you spot a simple case of craniocleidodysostosis? What on earth did they teach you at the General?’ Oh, yes, I’ll make the poor chap work all right.”
“I really don’t know, I’m sure,” she confessed. “You doctors ain’t a bit like what I thought you was. Do you want these prong things put back in the hot water?”
I was unable to meet my new colleague on his arrival the next day, as I expected to be out on my morning rounds until well past one o’clock.
“Tell him to stick his car round the back,” I told Miss Strudwick. “And I’ll be home as soon as I can. Make him a cup of tea, if he looks the tea type. Anyway, I’m sure you can entertain him.”
I struck a difficult hour trying to persuade a house physician to take a pneumonia into the local hospital, and it was almost two o’clock when I returned. I was at once both annoyed and worried to find that Barrington hadn’t arrived. It suddenly occurred to me that he’d found a better job and let me down, and I should have to start the dreary advertising and interviewing all over again. At that hour of the day the hall and waiting-room were empty, and Miss Strudwick had disappeared for lunch. The only person in sight was another of Grimsdyke’s clinical camp followers.
“I’m very sorry,” I said as I came in. “But you’re
“ Dear Dr Gordon ,
“ I should be glad if you would consider me for the post of your locum tenens, of which I heard today from Messrs. Pilcher and Perritt in Holborn. I am twenty-three years of age and qualified from the City General last December, subsequently holding the appointment of house surgeon to Mr Ernest Duff. I am now anxious to have some experience in general practice before continuing with surgery, in which I intend to specialize. Perhaps you would kindly let me know your decision as soon as you conveniently can? I would add that I possess a car.
“ Yours sincerely,
“ Nicholas Barrington,
“ BM, BCh (Oxon).”
I don’t think I had read a letter more gratefully since I opened the official envelope after my final examinations. The writer seemed sane, and wasn’t young enough to be a glorified student nor old enough to be a chronic drunkard. He sounded a little prim and precise, but that was only to be expected of an Oxford man. He had worked under Duff, who was so surgically eminent as to have two operations named after him. And even at St Swithin’s we recognized the City General students as a genially beery crowd like ourselves. Apart from this, the poor fellow’s following the will-o’-the-wisp of surgical specialization struck sympathy from my bosom: I felt that it would he nice to work with someone else who had probably failed the Primary too. Wasting no time, I took a risk and telegraphed Dr Barrington saying:
APPOINTED FORTHWITH COME IMMEDIATELY IF POSSIBLE ACCOMMODATION RATHER SHORT BUT CAN MUCK IN WITH ME UNTIL SETTLED STOP WORK HARD BUT FUN HOPE YOU DRINK BEER
“ GORDON
To which I had the reply:
ARRIVING NOON TOMORROW STOP YES I DRINK BEER
BARRINGTON
“Our troubles are over,” I told Kitten Strudwick happily that evening. “A Dr Barrington is arriving tomorrow to help us.”
“Oh, really? I wonder what he ’ll be like?”
“Soft hands and a kind heart like Dr Grimsdyke, I expect. So put on your best pair of nylons.”
“Go on with you! I didn’t think you noticed my nylons.”
“Doctors are trained to be observant, Miss Strudwick.”
“Yes,” I reflected, relaxing in the surgery chair comfortably for the first time since Dr Farquarson’s departure. “It’s going to be a bit of fun to have someone three years junior to me to kick about. I shall be able to hold my lapels and say ‘Come come, my lad – can’t you spot a simple case of craniocleidodysostosis? What on earth did they teach you at the General?’ Oh, yes, I’ll make the poor chap work all right.”
“I really don’t know, I’m sure,” she confessed. “You doctors ain’t a bit like what I thought you was. Do you want these prong things put back in the hot water?”
I was unable to meet my new colleague on his arrival the next day, as I expected to be out on my morning rounds until well past one o’clock.
“Tell him to stick his car round the back,” I told Miss Strudwick. “And I’ll be home as soon as I can. Make him a cup of tea, if he looks the tea type. Anyway, I’m sure you can entertain him.”
I struck a difficult hour trying to persuade a house physician to take a pneumonia into the local hospital, and it was almost two o’clock when I returned. I was at once both annoyed and worried to find that Barrington hadn’t arrived. It suddenly occurred to me that he’d found a better job and let me down, and I should have to start the dreary advertising and interviewing all over again. At that hour of the day the hall and waiting-room were empty, and Miss Strudwick had disappeared for lunch. The only person in sight was another of Grimsdyke’s clinical camp followers.
“I’m very sorry,” I said as I came in. “But you’re
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