The Citadel Read Online Free PDF Page A

the work which they were doing. He referred to Manson and himself as ‘ grimly battling with the epidemic’ and savoured the cliché with vindictive relish. But for all his satire, his sneers of ‘don’t forget, doctor, we’re upholding the honour of a truly glorious profession,’ he went close to his patients, sat on their beds, laid his hands upon them, spent hours in their sickrooms.
    At times Andrew came near to liking him for a flash of shy, self-conscious simplicity, then the whole thing would be shattered by a morose and sneering word. Hurt and baffled, Andrew turned one day in the hope of enlightenment to the Medical Directory. It was a five-year-old copy on Doctor Page’s shelf, but it held some startling information. It showed Philip Denny as an honours scholar of Cambridge and Guy’s, a MS of England, holding – at that date – a practice with an honorary surgical appointment in the ducal town of Leeborough.
    Then, on the tenth day of November, Denny unexpectedly rang him up.
    ‘Manson! I’d like to see you. Can you come to my place at three o’clock? It’s important.’
    ‘Very well. I’ll be there.’
    Andrew went into lunch thoughtfully. As he ate the cottage pie that was his portion he felt Blodwen Page’s eye fastened on him with a certain inquiry.
    ‘Who was that on the phone? So it was Denny, eh? You don’t have to go around with that fellow. He’s no use at all.’
    He faced her bluntly. ‘On the contrary, I’ve found him a great deal of use.’
    ‘Go on with you, doctor!’ Miss Page seemed put out by his reply. ‘He’s reg’lar queer. Mostly he don’t give medicine at all. Why, when Megan Rhys Morgan, who had to have medicine all her life, went to him he told her to walk two mile up the mountain every day and stop bogging herself with hogwash. These was his very words. She came to us after, I can tell you, and has had bottles and bottles of splendid medicine from Jenkins ever since. Oh! he’s an insulting devil. He has got a wife somewhere by all accounts. Not livin’ with him. See! Mostly he’s drunk also. You leave him alone doctor, and remember you’re workin’ for Doctor Page.’
    As she flung the familiar injunction at his head Andrew felt a quick rush of anger sweep over him. He was doing his utmost to please her, yet there seemed no limit to her demands. Her attitude, whether alternating between dryness or jollity, seemed always designed to get the last ounce out of him. He felt a sudden unreasonable anger. His first month’s pay was already three days overdue, perhaps an oversight upon her part, yet one which had worried and annoyed him considerably. At the sight of her there, assured and self-contained, sitting in judgment upon Denny, his feelings got the better of him. He said with sudden heat: ‘ I’d be more likely to remember that I’m working for Doctor Page if I had my month’s salary, Miss Page.’
    She reddened so indignantly that he was sure the matter had altogether escaped her mind. She held her head very erect. ‘You shall have it. The idea!’
    For the rest of the meal she sat in a huff, not looking at him, as though he had insulted her. And, indeed, he was conscious of an equal annoyance against himself. He had spoken without thinking, without wishing to offend her. He felt that his quick temper had placed him in a false position.
    As he went on with his lunch he could not help reflecting on the relations which existed between Miss Page and himself. The truth was that, from the first moment when he had entered Bryngower, he had sensed that they were unsympathetic to one another. Perhaps the fault lay on his side – the realisation made him moodier than ever – he knew that his manner was stiff and difficult.
    And there was no doubt that Blodwen Page was a most estimable woman, a good and economical housewife, who never wasted a moment of her time. She had many friends in Drineffy, everyone spoke well of her. And, indeed, her unsparing devotion