Doctor in Love by Richard Gordon

Author:Richard Gordon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Doctor in Love
ISBN: 9780755131013
Publisher: House of Stratus
Published: 2012-12-27T05:00:00+00:00

13

The next morning I arrived in the surgery to find an alarming letter from Grimsdyke. The envelope was postmarked FOULNESS, but the official-looking writing-paper bore no address.

“Dear old boy, (it said)

“Shame forbids me to tell you where I am. Little did I think, in those happy days at St Swithin’s, that the Grimsdykes would be reduced to such shifts. But there are compensations. I always thought ‘Sweet are the uses of adversity’ was a damn silly remark, but anguishing in my present chastening surroundings I have had time to reflect. I made an absolute idiot of myself at Hampden Cross, old lad. You should have kicked me out into the street much sooner than you did. I can only ask you to believe that I was full of good intentions and hope that the friendship of our youth will be preserved. Could you possibly manage to fix me up with twenty-five quid? I shall be released from here at dawn on Saturday, and I could meet you in St Swithin’s for a beer at lunch. Please bring the cash with you.

“Yours,

“Grim.”

“Good Lord!” I said to Nikki, handing her the letter. “The poor fellow’s been sent to jail, or something.”

“Foulness?” She picked up the envelope. “I don’t know if there’s a prison there or not.”

“It’s either that, or he’s in some sort of mental institution. Poor old Grim! His career’s absolutely up a gum tree now.”

Remorse struck me like the taste of some unpleasant drug. I sat at the consulting-room desk and stared gloomily at the prescription pad.

“Don’t worry,” said Nikki kindly. “It may not be as bad as it looks.”

“With Grimsdyke it generally is,” I said. “And the whole thing’s entirely my fault. He’s a wonderful chap really, old Grim. We’ve known each other since my first day at St Swithin’s. I remember it well – he taught me how to slip out of lecture-rooms without being spotted from the front. Why, we shared each other’s books and beer for years. And now the unfortunate fellow’s in jail because I was a bit hasty with him and kicked him out of the first regular job he ever held.”

“If you hadn’t,” said Nikki, “you’d have been spared the trouble of taking me in.”

“Oh, Lord! Sorry, Nikki. I didn’t mean for one moment–”

“I’m sure you didn’t.”

“It’s just that I can’t help feeling sorry for poor Grim. I’ll have to go down and see him on Saturday. It’s the least I can do. Would you mind staying on duty? And I must pop out to the bank now to collect twenty-five pounds. The chap’s probably got nothing between him and starvation except the Prisoners’ Aid Society, or whatever it is.”

I drove anxiously into London the next Saturday morning wishing that I had allowed more generously for my friend’s enterprising spirit. I was also worrying what to say when I called at the Royal Neurological to see Dr Farquarson, who a few days before had finally fallen under the knife of his old classmate.

An

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