chamber I suppose."
Not more than ten minutes later he was putting his stethoscope back into his case and Grace was asking from the dressing-room, "Well, am I going to die and you're afraid to tell me?"
Some seconds passed before he answered and then he said, "There's nothing wrong with your body that I can see ... what's on your mind?"
There was no answer to this, and a few more minutes elapsed before Grace came into the bedroom. She was fastening the belt of her dress and she asked, "What do you mean?"
David Cooper puckered his face up, and, giving an impatient shake of his head, said, "Don't let us stall, Grace. You're worrying about something. Come on, let's have it."
"Worrying?" Her eyebrows moved up in surprise as she stared him full in the face.
"What would I have to worry about?"
"You tell me." He was returning her stare.
"Do you want a family?" He watched her blink, then lower her gaze from him as she said, "Of course I want a family; every woman does at least most do. Is there anything wrong in that?
"
"No, that's definitely the right outlook ... Does Donald want a family?"
"Well ... She turned away.
"Yes ... yes, I suppose so."
He looked at her as she walked towards the window, and said quietly,
"Do you mean to say you've never discussed this?"
"There's been no need, it's understood." In the silence that followed her remark she thought, "Of course it's understood. Love and marriage were for the sole purpose of creating souls, hadn't Donald said that?"
Oh she closed her eyes and chided herself she must stop this way of thinking about Donald.
Dr. Cooper left the matter where it was and came to her side as she stood looking down into the garden, and after a moment he remarked,
"There's old Ben still at it. He's aged since he lost Miss Tupping."
"Has he?" Grace turned to him.
"Of course, I wouldn't know; he looks the same to me as when I first saw him. I like Ben."
"I'm glad you do. He's a funny old fellow but as straight as a die. He had one interest in life and that was his mistress. They were more like father and daughter."
"Father and daughter? I've always been under the impression that Miss Tupping was old."
"Not old as people go, she was only about forty-five."
"Really?"
"Yes. She was under sentence of death when she had this house built, you know, and she started on the garden expecting to give it the last year of her life. The earth repaid her and gave her nine more years.
She was my first patient, and I had to pass sentence on her. And the day she died I found Ben lying on the ground behind the greenhouse crying into the earth. "
Grace made no comment. The picture the doctor conjured up before her was too deep and sad for comment. She looked down on the stooped back of the old man and asked what seemed an irrelevant question.
"Why have you stayed here all these years?"
"Because it's a healthy place."
"Healthy?" She turned her head towards him again, her eyes narrowed.
The way she had repeated the word
healthy conveyed a question which might have been interpreted as having said, "What have doctors to do with healthy places? It was in the unhealthy places, surely, that they were needed."
He lifted his gaze to the beech that bordered the lawn and replied,
"Renee's had T.B. She went down with it the first year we were married."
Again she could find no comment. She had never guessed that Renee had been ill, she looked strong and robust and so boisterously happy now that she was having her first child after ten years of marriage.
Renee had infected her with all the excitement about the coming baby.
That was until the last few weeks, when she had come to think of her new friend with something that could only be called envy. But now she was filled with contrition and not a little shame. Renee with T.
B.
and Ben lying on the ground crying. Why had David told her these things to take her mind off herself? Well, whatever his reason it had certainly achieved something, for she felt
Not more than ten minutes later he was putting his stethoscope back into his case and Grace was asking from the dressing-room, "Well, am I going to die and you're afraid to tell me?"
Some seconds passed before he answered and then he said, "There's nothing wrong with your body that I can see ... what's on your mind?"
There was no answer to this, and a few more minutes elapsed before Grace came into the bedroom. She was fastening the belt of her dress and she asked, "What do you mean?"
David Cooper puckered his face up, and, giving an impatient shake of his head, said, "Don't let us stall, Grace. You're worrying about something. Come on, let's have it."
"Worrying?" Her eyebrows moved up in surprise as she stared him full in the face.
"What would I have to worry about?"
"You tell me." He was returning her stare.
"Do you want a family?" He watched her blink, then lower her gaze from him as she said, "Of course I want a family; every woman does at least most do. Is there anything wrong in that?
"
"No, that's definitely the right outlook ... Does Donald want a family?"
"Well ... She turned away.
"Yes ... yes, I suppose so."
He looked at her as she walked towards the window, and said quietly,
"Do you mean to say you've never discussed this?"
"There's been no need, it's understood." In the silence that followed her remark she thought, "Of course it's understood. Love and marriage were for the sole purpose of creating souls, hadn't Donald said that?"
Oh she closed her eyes and chided herself she must stop this way of thinking about Donald.
Dr. Cooper left the matter where it was and came to her side as she stood looking down into the garden, and after a moment he remarked,
"There's old Ben still at it. He's aged since he lost Miss Tupping."
"Has he?" Grace turned to him.
"Of course, I wouldn't know; he looks the same to me as when I first saw him. I like Ben."
"I'm glad you do. He's a funny old fellow but as straight as a die. He had one interest in life and that was his mistress. They were more like father and daughter."
"Father and daughter? I've always been under the impression that Miss Tupping was old."
"Not old as people go, she was only about forty-five."
"Really?"
"Yes. She was under sentence of death when she had this house built, you know, and she started on the garden expecting to give it the last year of her life. The earth repaid her and gave her nine more years.
She was my first patient, and I had to pass sentence on her. And the day she died I found Ben lying on the ground behind the greenhouse crying into the earth. "
Grace made no comment. The picture the doctor conjured up before her was too deep and sad for comment. She looked down on the stooped back of the old man and asked what seemed an irrelevant question.
"Why have you stayed here all these years?"
"Because it's a healthy place."
"Healthy?" She turned her head towards him again, her eyes narrowed.
The way she had repeated the word
healthy conveyed a question which might have been interpreted as having said, "What have doctors to do with healthy places? It was in the unhealthy places, surely, that they were needed."
He lifted his gaze to the beech that bordered the lawn and replied,
"Renee's had T.B. She went down with it the first year we were married."
Again she could find no comment. She had never guessed that Renee had been ill, she looked strong and robust and so boisterously happy now that she was having her first child after ten years of marriage.
Renee had infected her with all the excitement about the coming baby.
That was until the last few weeks, when she had come to think of her new friend with something that could only be called envy. But now she was filled with contrition and not a little shame. Renee with T.
B.
and Ben lying on the ground crying. Why had David told her these things to take her mind off herself? Well, whatever his reason it had certainly achieved something, for she felt
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