A Surgical Affair Read Online Free Page B

can’t have. That man has more girl friends than the rest of us put together.” He snorted as he buttered some toast. “You’d think a man who’s been married would sit back and let some of us bachelors get a look in.”
    “All’s fair in love and getting on with the nurses, old boy.” said Mike Simons, grinning at him.
    Diana sipped her coffee and thought, “ So that’s why Mark is so frivolous and off-hand. Once bitten... ”
    Then Mark strolled in, hands in his pockets, the collar of his white coat turned up. His brown eyes casually surveyed the table and, for a moment, rested on Diana.
    He sat down opposite her.
    “Anyone want to buy a good suit, for a fiver?” he asked loudly, stirring his coffee.
    “Why? Broke again?” said Mike Simons.
    “I’m saving up. I want to see the south of France this summer, in case I decide to go home at the end of the year. I’ll just lie on the beach all day and watch the girls go by in their bikinis.” Diana saw Mark grinning at her and knew that he had deliberately said this to shock them all. It amused her.
    “Surely your suit is worth more than five pounds?” she asked.
    “Not really. I’ve had it since I qualified.” He frowned. “Looking back, I wish I’d left all my trunks at the harbor in New York. I could have bought six new suits with the money from my insurance company.”
    “Have you a job lined up at home to return to, Mark?” Mike Simons asked.
    “No. I suppose I’ll have to find one in Sydney. I can’t go on floating from job to job. I’m a surgical hobo.”
    It’s all good surgical experience,” somebody said.
    “Sure, but I belong in Australia. It’s part of me.”
    The table was nearly full now. Suddenly Tony Spring stood up, banging his cup with a spoon.
    “Attention, please, all!” he shouted. “I wish to announce a small, informal party in my room, Number Two, on Saturday. Seven o’clock on wards. Everyone’s invited, including wives and attachments.”
    As he sat down, amid a general murmur of approval, Mark asked him, “What’s this in aid of?”
    Tony smiled happily. “As a matter of fact, I’m getting engaged. ”
    An expression of horror came over Mark’s face. “Engaged? You must be mad! A good-looking young fellow like you. You could have a wonderful time. Live it up while you can, boy.”
    “I’m not like you, Mark, I’m a one-woman man.”
    “But so am I!” he insisted. “It’s just that I can’t find the woman.” As she joined in the laughter, Diana realized that since Mark had come into the room, she was feeling different. All at once, life seemed full of fun and excitement.
    “I’ll have to marry a doctor, I think,” he was saying gaily. “I’ll retire at 65, and she can keep me in my old age.”
    With Mr. Cole away in Zurich, Diana had been thrown together with Mark for long hours in the theater. In the fatigue of the day’s long lists, and in the silence of the night during emergency cases, she hoped he found her sensible and reliable. She tried not to talk too much. She knew he liked her sense of humor too; her “rather fascinating giggle,” as he called it. Mark had once said to her, jokingly, “Two people could run this outfit, you and me. Shall I wire Cole not to come back?”
    Diana remembered Mark leaning toward her over the operating table, his hand patiently exploring, searching, feeling inside the unconscious body, making sure that everything was normal, that no disease lay hidden out of sight. And she found herself thinking: “This man attracts me. I can understand him, I admire his skill. His face is gentle, but strong.”
    The feeling had only lasted a moment, then the operation had taken up all her attention. But it surprised her, worried her a little, that she could have such sympathy for this man, whom she hardly knew. It threatened to disturb the safe, comfortable pattern of her life. Her work and her friendship with Richard were parts of her life that she had grown used to and