hand. The yellow skin tone, which had deepened yesterday, was
noticeably lighter.
24
As Andrew came in her husband stood up, smiling broadly, his hands
outstretched.
"Thank you, Doctor! Oh, thank you!" That Adam's apple of John Rowe's
bobbed up and down as Andrew took his hand.
From the bed Mary Rowe added a soft but fervent, "Bless you, Doctor!"
It was the resident's turn. Overton pumped Andrew's hand.
"Congratulations!" He added, uncharacteristically, "sir." Andrew was
surprised to see tears brimming in the burly Texan's eyes.
The head floor nurse, Mrs. Ludlow, bustled in. Normally preoccupied and
serious, she was beaming. "It's all around the hospital, Dr. Jordan.
Everybody's talking about you."
"Look," Andrew said, "there was an experimental drug, Lotromycin. It was
brought to me. I didn't-"
"Around here," the nurse said, "you're a hero. If I were you I
wouldn't fight it." -
"I ordered a blood test, stat," the resident reported. "It showed ammonia
below toxic level. Also, the bilirubin isn't rising, so the rest of the
cure will be routine." He added to himself, "Unbelievable!"
Andrew told his patient, "I'm happy for you, Mary." A thought occurred
to him. "Has anyone seen that girl from Felding-Roth? Miss de Grey."
"She was around here earlier," Nurse Ludlow said. "She may be at the
nursing station."
"Excuse me," Andrew said, and went outside.
Celia de Grey was waiting in the corridor. She had changed her clothes
from last night. A soft smile played around her face.
As they regarded each other, Andrew was conscious of a constraint between
them.
"You look a lot better with your hair dry," he said.
"And you're not as stern and fierce as yesterday."
There was a pause before he said, "You heard?"
"Yes."
"In there Andrew motioned toward the hospital room. "In there they've
been thanking me. But the one we should all thank is you."
She said, smiling, "You're the doctor."
Then suddenly, all barriers down, they were laughing and crying together.
A moment later, to his own surprise, he took her in his arms and kissed
her.
25
Over coffee and a shared Danish in the hospital cafeteria Celia de Grey
removed her glasses and said, "I telephoned our company medical director
and told him what happened. He's talked with some of our research people.
They're all happy."
"They have a right to be," Andrew said. "They made a good drug."
"I was also told to ask: Will you write up a case report, including your
use of Lotromycin, for publication in a medical journal?"
He answered, "Gladly."
"Naturally, it would be good for Felding-Roth." The saleswoman's tone was
businesslike. "That's because we expect Lotromycin to be an important drug
and a big seller. But it won't do you any harm either."
Andrew acknowledged with a smile, "Probably not."
He was thoughtful as be sipped his coffee. He knew that through mere
chance, a fluke engineered by what he now saw as this remarkable and
delightful young woman seated opposite, he had participated in a piece of
medical history. Few physicians ever had that opportunity.
"Look," Andrew said, "there's something I want to say. Yesterday, Celia,
you told me I had bad manners and you were right. I was rude to you. I
apologize."
"Not necessary," she told him briskly. "I liked the way you were. You were
worried about your patient and you didn't care about anything else. Your
caring showed. But then you're always that way."
The remark surprised him. "How do you know?"
"Because people have told me." Again the swift, warm smile. She had her
glasses on again; removing and replacing them seemed a habit. Celia
continued, "I know a lot about you, Andrew Jordan. Partly because it's my
job to get to know doctors and partly . . . well, I'll get to that later."
This unusual girl, he thought, had many facets. He asked, "What do you
know?"
"Well, for one thing you were at the top of your medical school class at
Johns Hopkins. For another, you did your