"I came, you see, Dr. Edwardes."
Now and then, when some one came to him for help, which was generally
money, he used Christine's parlor, if she happened to be out. So now,
finding the door ajar, and the room dark, he went in and turned on the
light.
"Come in here; we can talk better."
She did not sit down at first; but, observing that her standing kept him on
his feet, she sat finally. Evidently she found it hard to speak.
"You were to come," K. encouraged her, "to see if we couldn't plan
something for you. Now, I think I've got it."
"If it's another hospital--and I don't want to stay here, in the city."
"You like surgical work, don't you?"
"I don't care for anything else."
"Before we settle this, I'd better tell you what I'm thinking of. You know,
of course, that I closed my hospital. I--a series of things happened, and
I decided I was in the wrong business. That wouldn't be important, except
for what it leads to. They are trying to persuade me to go back, and--I'm
trying to persuade myself that I'm fit to go back. You see,"--his tone was
determinedly cheerful, "my faith in myself has been pretty nearly gone.
When one loses that, there isn't much left."
"You had been very successful." She did not look up.
"Well, I had and I hadn't. I'm not going to worry you about that. My
offer is this: We'll just try to forget about--about Schwitter's and all
the rest, and if I go back I'll take you on in the operating-room."
"You sent me away once!"
"Well, I can ask you to come back, can't I?" He smiled at her
encouragingly.
"Are you sure you understand about Max Wilson and myself?"
"I understand."
"Don't you think you are taking a risk?"
"Every one makes mistakes now and then, and loving women have made mistakes
since the world began. Most people live in glass houses, Miss Harrison.
And don't make any mistake about this: people can always come back. No
depth is too low. All they need is the willpower."
He smiled down at her. She had come armed with confession. But the offer
he made was too alluring. It meant reinstatement, another chance, when she
had thought everything was over. After all, why should she damn herself?
She would go back. She would work her finger-ends off for him. She would
make it up to him in other ways. But she could not tell him and lose
everything.