To Please the Doctor Read Online Free PDF

journeyed in the former ’ s car to St. Joseph ’ s. The mist of the previous evening had completely cleared, and Jill was able to see for the first time something of the district in which Harriet ’ s house was situated and the countryside which separated it from Sunsand Bay. The outside of the house, finished in white stucco with small, mullioned windows, had a certain charm; but the surrounding countryside was flat and ploughed fields led down to the edge of the low overhanging cliffs, which levelled out, as they neared the town, into the flat promenade which Jill had glimpsed upon arrival. Small old-fashioned apartment houses flanked the long line of sea front, at the end of which stood a large hotel badly in need of a coat of paint, but which at least boasted a garden stretching down to the shore, and a cluster of huts which, in the season, were doubtless part of a private beach. Sunsand, of which Jill could see but a huddle of grey roofs, sloped upward from the sea a n d was dominated by an enormous and imposing church spire. Turning off from the front the car began to climb the hill which Jill could remember descending from the station, and then quite unexpectedly, the hospital came into view. Jill couldn ’ t imagine how she had missed it on her arrival . She must have been hunting for that illusive bay since the group o f buildings in modern red brick was far too outstanding not to have caught her attention.
    As Harriet had explained, St. Joseph ’ s, unlike the hospitals where she had worked in London, consisted of a series of buildings comprising various wards and departments. A wide drive curved between well-kept lawns to the main entrance to which they were now heading. Jill, as she alighted from the car, was impressed with the well-planned precision of the general layout, and as she turned to see more of her surroundings she was agreeably surprised to see how high they had climbed beyond the town a turn in the road had blotted out completely those hideous roof-tops, and an unbroken vista of cliff and sea lay before her eyes. Desp i te the chilly wind which billowed round her, Jill was exhilarated by the salty tang on her lips and the vast sweep o f the sea as far as her eyes could see.
    Jill had always considered that an interview with any hospital matron was reminiscent of schooldays. Matron, this morning, had exactly the same effect, and lowering her eyes sh e was surprised not to find pigtails hanging from her shoulders and black woollen stockings showing beneath a gym slip . Not that she wasn ’ t most kind, and as affable as she had been at the original interview, but there was something about the demeanour of every matron which produced that particular effect on her. Harriet, having seen Jill safely in charge of the Home sis ter hurried off to her own work with a promise that they ’ d meet again in the ward after lunch. With some trepidation Jill followed her escort from the main building across the sloping lawn to the Sister ’ s Home; it appeared on the exterior to be pleasantly modern, but Jill still harboured a pang of anxiety concerning her own quarters. She need not have worried: the room to which the Home Sister led her was far better than the quarters she had had in London. With a pleasant smile and a hope that she would find everything to her liking, the Sister left her with a promise that by the time she had unpacked and got into uniform she ’ d send a nurse from the Children ’ s Annexe to introduce her to what would be her future domain.
    Left alone, Jill let her eyes wander round the room. It was indeed pleasant. It lacked the homely touches which she would gradually provide, but at least it was freshly painted with adequate cupboard room and a concealed basin, and throwing open the window she looked out on a stretch of pleasant garden and over the tops and between the bare branches of the trees, the sea, with its white-crested waves stretched out to meet the grey horizon.
    Her