Jeanette’s eyes flew to Mr. Hartley’s face. Dr. Swenson had just presented the situation in as blunt a way as he could, cutting right to the heart of the matter, and she wondered how their patient would react.
Mr. Hartley didn’t say anything for a moment, then slowly nodded. “I understand. Why don’t you meet me in the study—I’ll change and join you.”
Jeanette followed Dr. Swenson back down the staircase, and they found that their tea tray had been freshened with a hot pot and new sandwiches. They each helped themselves, then Dr. Swenson turned to Jeanette.
“I confess, Nurse Anderson, that I was giving you a bit of a test upstairs. I’d heard that Dr. Russell was training up an unusual group of nurses, and I wanted to see if the things I’ve heard are true.”
Jeanette raised her eyebrow. “Just what sorts of things have you been hearing, sir?”
“Primarily that you’re being taught how to diagnose and treat rather than just being an assistant to the doctor. Is that true?”
Jeanette leaned forward and returned her cup to the tray. “We’re taught to think for ourselves, to take the information that’s given us and use it to draw logical conclusions. If that means that we’re being taught to diagnose and treat, well, perhaps, but that’s not the obvious goal.”
Dr. Swenson shook his head. “I must say, it is a rather peculiar thing. I’ve had nurses from time to time, but I’ve never felt as though they added much to my practice, so I haven’t done much about keeping one full time. I don’t need someone to hand me things and nod whenever I speak. But the way you’re being trained—it would be like having a peer, someone to share ideas with. That seems valuable to me. Why aren’t more nurses being trained this way?”
Jeanette shrugged. “I can’t say, sir. I didn’t realize our training was any different until I began to hear comments about it. I only know that I would never be content in an occupation that required me to nod and hand someone things. That doesn’t seem like a good use of anyone’s time.”
“Quite so, quite so.”
Mr. Hartley returned just then, and Jeanette offered him some tea. He cast a longing look at the brandy bottles on the sideboard, then accepted. “Two sugars,” he said.
“So you’ve given it some thought?” Dr. Swenson asked.
“I have, and while it pains me to do so, I’ve realized that giving up my vices is really the only thing I can do. My son and his wife are planning to make me a grandfather before too much longer, and if I were to choose a bottle over my grandchild, well, that hardly makes me worthy of the title. And I suppose that if my life is only prolonged a short time, I should be glad for that time and not squander it.”
“You’re a good man, William.” Dr. Swenson leaned forward and clapped his friend on the shoulder. “I’ll come back out in three weeks or so and we’ll see how you’re progressing. I don’t know how much the distension in your liver might go down in that time, but I expect that we’ll see far less yellow in your skin, and that would be a good sign of improvement.”
“Thank you, Percy. I’ll look forward to it.” Mr. Hartley turned and looked at Jeanette. “And will you be with him?”
“I’m afraid not, sir. I’ll be finishing my course of study and returning home in that time.”
“Well, in a case like that, allow me to thank you and to apologize for my behavior. It’s not easy for a man to hear that he’s wrong, and it’s even harder for him to contemplate what he must do to become right.”
“That’s quite all right, sir. I’m just glad that you’re going to take Dr. Swenson’s advice.”
Jeanette and Dr. Swenson finished their refreshments, then walked back outside as the sun was descending in the sky. These early winter evenings . . . yet another reason to look forward to spring.
“Will you be warm enough on the drive back?” Dr. Swenson asked. “I can ask the groom for another lap robe if that one’s not sufficient.”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” Jeanette replied.
The horses started out, well rested after spending some time in Mr. Hartley’s barn, and Jeanette settled back into her seat. After a moment or two had passed, she said, “Dr. Swenson, may I ask you a question that’s not related to medicine whatsoever?”
“If it’s not related to medicine whatsoever, I might not know anything about it,” he replied. “But I’m willing to try.”
Jeanette nodded. “If a man were engaged to a woman, and he wrote her faithfully for months and then his letters began to slow down, and in his last one, he mentioned meeting an old friend . . . who happened to be female . . . well, what should the woman think? The engaged woman, not the old friend woman.” Gracious. Could she have made that any more confusing if she’d tried?
“Let me try to sort through your question,” Dr. Swenson said. “Your young man has dropped off in his letter writing, has he?”
Jeanette looked down at her hands, which were tucked into a fold of the lap robe. “He has.”
“And this old friend . . . were they engaged at any point?”
“I don’t believe so, but he never said exactly.”
Dr. Swenson didn’t speak for a moment, but she could tell he was mulling things over. “Nurse Anderson,” he said, “I’ve been a bachelor all my life. I can’t give any advice from personal experience—I can only say what makes sense to me. And if he’s being enticed away by someone else, well, he doesn’t deserve you.”
“Oh, I agree,” Jeanette said quickly. “I guess I’m just hoping that there’s another explanation, like his letters have been getting lost in the mail or he ran out of ink and has been so busy thinking about our wedding that he forgot to buy some more or something . . .” And now she was starting to sound like Sophie. “I deserve a man who’s committed to me with everything inside him, and I want that man to be Phillip. It’s so hard for me to believe that things might have changed. And I’m sorry. I’m not being very professional right now.”
Dr. Swenson chuckled. “That’s all right. We can’t do our best for our patients when there’s something wrong inside us, can we?”
“No, we can’t.” Jeanette listened to the clip-clopping of horse hooves on the snowy road for a moment. “I just need to wait and see, don’t I?”
“I believe you do. Concentrate on finishing up here as best as you can, and then when you get home, you’ll find out what’s going on. You’re a talented nurse, and you’ll find an occupation and be all right even if it’s not where you planned on.”
“Thank you.”
They didn’t speak much the rest of the way into town, which was perfectly all right with Jeanette. She’d already said a bit more than she’d intended.
Mrs. Everett brought her inside and filled her up with a nice hot dinner, then she climbed the stairs to her room. There on her bed were two envelopes, and she pounced on them like a kitten on a string. One was from Elizabeth at the Brody, and the other was from her sister.
Oh, well.
It was good to get mail even if it wasn’t what she was hoping for.
Chapter Six
The next morning at breakfast, Dr. Russell asked each of the girls to share how they were getting along in their new assignments. None of them had anything negative to say, although Laura had been thrown up on four times the previous day and didn’t appreciate that at all.
“What do you think you’ll choose as far as your direction from here?” he asked once they’d all shared their experiences. “Private practice, or hospital?”
“Whatever will have me,” Meg said, and the other girls nodded.
“Hospital, so I can work with Edward after we’re married,” Sophie replied.
“Private practice for the same reason,” Jeanette said. “But I’m not marrying Edward, of course.”
Everyone laughed at that.
“As you are the first group of students we’ve trained, Irene and I are very eager to see how well you do in the world once you leave here,” Dr. Russell said. “I admit, this is somewhat like wa
tching a baby bird take flight, and I pray that we’ve done right by you.”
“If we do horribly, we’ll know who to blame,” Sophie replied, and again, everyone laughed.
“We do hope that you’ll write to us once you’re settled and let us know how you are,” Mrs. Russell said. “I may not be old enough to be your mother, but I feel as though you’re my little sisters at least, and I care very much about you.” Her eyes suddenly filled with tears, and she reached for her handkerchief.
“Are you in the mood to tell them, my dear?” Dr. Russell asked her in a low voice, but not so low that he couldn’t be overheard by everyone at the table.
“You can,” she replied with a sniff.
“Irene might not be your mother, but she is someone’s mother,” he said to the room at large, and the girls immediately began laughing and talking. Jeanette couldn’t keep tears of her own from springing to her eyes. What a wonderful thing . . . both her sister and her teacher having children. She did wonder what that would mean for Mrs. Russell’s plans to move forward with the nursing school, but with Mrs. Everett’s help, she was sure it would go well.
And Jeanette wouldn’t be there to see it.
She was surprised at the sudden rush of emotion she felt. All this time, she’d been counting the days until she could go home, but now, she realized just how much she’d miss this place, these good people. And then she was reaching for her handkerchief, and laughed when she realized just how many of the other girls were too.
“Am I the only one at this entire table keeping his wits about him?” Dr. Russell said gruffly. “All this sniffling is liable to put me off my breakfast.”
“Not likely,” Mrs. Russell replied.
***
Jeanette was still filled with warm and good feelings as she headed off toward Dr. Swenson’s.
“Good morning,” she said to Mrs. Hobbs as she entered.
“Good morning. Go on down—the doctor’s in his office.”
When Jeanette walked into the room, she was taken aback to see Dr. Swenson hunched over a giant eyeball lying on a tray on his desk.
“Doctor?” she said hesitantly.
“Oh, Nurse Anderson. I didn’t hear you come in. Take a look at this, would you? Simply fascinating.”
Jeanette took a step closer, but just one. “What . . . what are you doing?” She tried to sound interested and not nauseated.
“I’m dissecting this cow eyeball. Look at all the blood vessels. Aren’t they marvelous?”
“I’m sure they are. May I ask why you’re doing this?”
He straightened and gave her his full attention. “You don’t sound enthused.”
“It’s very interesting. It’s just . . . also . . . very unusual.”
He chuckled. “We have a patient this morning who is coming in for a consult on her vision. I suggested that she might visit another doctor, but she’s been with me for so long, she feels more comfortable here. I thought I might do a cursory exam and then bring in a colleague, as vision isn’t my specialty.”
“I know they deal with vision at St. Timothy’s,” Jeanette said.
“Yes, they do a fine job. And as for me, well, I thought I’d refresh my memory of just how the eye works. I headed down to the butcher first thing and was rewarded with this prize.” He nodded toward the eyeball on his desk.
“Have you learned anything new, or is it all a refresher?” Jeanette asked.
“Mostly a refresher, but I must say, my admiration for this organ has increased tremendously. Layers upon layers of tissue combine to create this magnificent tool of sight.”
“It truly is a miracle,” Jeanette agreed, taking a seat across the desk. From that lower perspective, she couldn’t see the eyeball quite as well . . . and it couldn’t see her.
“Are you a creationist, Nurse Anderson, or a scientist?” Dr. Swenson asked, sitting back again to regard her.
She smiled. What a familiar conversation. “I’m both, sir. Is it so odd to believe that God created science, and so they are both correct?”
“I can’t say as that I’ve ever heard that put so succinctly.”
Jeanette raised her shoulder. “I see no need for them to be exclusive. They work together to answer all the questions we might have, even those that seem impossible to resolve. The eye is a miracle, Doctor, because God created it to be so.”
Dr. Swenson nodded. “A clear perspective, certainly. I would like to ask you a few more questions about that, but first, I need to clear away this . . . er . . . project. Our patient is due soon, and I’m not sure she’d be as interested in it as I am.”
Jeanette thought he’d discard the eyeball, but instead, he opened a cabinet on the far side of the room and put the whole thing in there, tray and all, then closed the doors. Everything looked normal again, but she wasn’t sure how she’d be able to distract herself from knowing that thing was in there. Oh, look—she could study the disembodied moose head on the wall instead. That was much better.
Mrs. Godfrey was a frail older woman whose gray hair blended right in to the gray fur on the collar of her coat. She was escorted by her grandson, a tall young man who held her arm carefully as she lowered herself into the chair. He then sat next to her.
“A pleasure to see you, Mrs. Godfrey. It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? A year or so?”
“Yes. I traveled to Europe last fall.”
“That’s right—of course you did.” Dr. Swenson leaned back in his chair. “How was the trip?”
“Very enjoyable. I went to every historic site I’ve ever wanted to visit—the Parthenon, for instance. Oh, it was wonderful. Wasn’t it, Robert?”
“It was, Grandma.” The young man reached out and patted her hand.
“We were about a month from returning when I noticed that my eyesight was beginning to dim. It began as a small thing, as if I just needed one more candle or lamp, but now I can’t seem to get enough light no matter what I do. I’m afraid I may be going blind. I hope you can help me, Dr. Swenson.”
The doctor shifted in his chair. “As I mentioned in my reply to your letter, vision is not my specialty, and any information I give you will be elementary at best. I do have some colleagues, though, who are much more skilled than I am, and with your permission, I’ll call them in for a consult.”
“Thank you, Doctor. I’m most grateful.”
Dr. Swenson adjusted the curtains over the windows to make the room as dark as possible, then brought a lamp near to Mrs. Godfrey’s face so he could look into her eyes. During the examination, Robert came and stood next to Jeanette so as to be out of the way.
“You’re very good with your grandmother,” she said quietly.
“She’s been good to me,” he replied. “She paid for my college education, she took me to Europe with her, and she’s treated me with kindness my whole life. Anything I do for her seems too little.”
Jeanette smiled. “It sounds like you’re lucky to have each other.”
“We really are. She’s lonely in that big house all by herself, and I manage to make just enough noise to suit her.”
“Nurse Anderson, could you hand me some gauze?” Dr. Swenson asked, and Jeanette immediately shifted her focus.
Mrs. Godfrey’s eyes were watering from being held open so long, so Jeanette dabbed them with a bit of gauze and then stood at the ready for whatever else she might be asked to do. Robert seemed equally concerned, his gaze never really leaving his grandmother’s face.
“And you didn’t see that either?” Dr. Swenson asked, bringing his finger in from the left to test her peripheral vision.
“I’m afraid not,” she replied.
“Well, that’s quite disappointing. I’d arranged for a dancing bear to come through here, and you missed the whole thing.” Dr. Swenson turned off his lamp and motioned for Jeanette to open the curtains again. “I’m making careful notes to share with my colleague. I see no injuries to the eyes, but I do see some yellowish spots that do seem rather thick.”<
br />
“Like a foreign object in the eye, Doctor, or like a discoloration of the retina?” Jeanette asked.
“A discoloration. I should have shown you a moment ago—I’m not used to having a nurse on hand.” He shook his head, but continued. “Can you return to see me in a week’s time? That will give me the chance to arrange for my colleague to be here as well.”
“Of course,” Mrs. Godfrey replied. “Is there anything we can do for it in the meantime?”
Dr. Swenson passed his hand through his hair. “Without knowing the cause, I can’t guess at a cure, or even a help,” he said. “I’m utterly useless to you.”
“Oh, piffle,” Mrs. Godfrey said, flapping a hand at him. “That sort of self-recrimination is completely unattractive. There is one thing you might help with, though, and that would be the recommendation of someone who might be willing to sit with me tonight. Robert’s generally about, but he has a special outing planned, and I gave the cook and the housekeeper both the night off without realizing what I’d done. Just for a few hours.”
“I’d be willing, if you don’t need me, Doctor,” Jeanette volunteered.
“I’ll be . . . visiting with Mrs. Fitzpatrick tonight, so no, I don’t need you,” he replied.
Jeanette turned to Mrs. Godfrey. “Does that suit?”
“It does very well. Thank you. I’ll send a carriage around for you if you’ll write down the address.”
Jeanette took a sheet of paper from the top of the doctor’s desk, jotted down the address for Dr. Russell’s house, and handed it to Mrs. Godfrey, who tucked it into the small reticule that dangled from her wrist.
“Thank you again, and now we’ll go.” She came to her feet, using Robert as her support, and the two slowly left the room.
“Do you have any idea what’s the matter with her eyes?” Jeanette asked, turning back to Dr. Swenson.
“I don’t, but it will certainly be fascinating to find out,” he said. “Now, let’s be off on our appointments, shall we? We have two this afternoon.”
Test of Time (Nurses of New York Book 5) Page 4
