The Rack by A. E. Ellis

Author:A. E. Ellis [Ellis, A. E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473594579
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2022-02-09T00:00:00+00:00

3

“Is so bad, the food. Please to sign the declaration.”

Mayevski, a Pole, accompanied by Manniez and Glou-Glou, was visiting all the rooms in search of signatures.

“This will be the sixth petition that I’ve signed since I’ve been here,” said Paul with a smile. And as he wrote his name, he added: “And it will be my last.”

“Because we will get better food?”

“No—because I’m leaving here in a month!”

New patients invariably believed that corporate action must lead to an improvement in the diet. It took a long time before they gained some insight into the workings of the organisation to which the sanatorium belonged.

Initially M. Halfont never failed to accord each complaint and petition his sympathetic attention. Sometimes, as had been his custom with the students, he would expound the difficulty of providing a satisfactorily international cuisine; sometimes he would blame the chef and claim that he was scouring the whole continent for a suitable replacement; sometimes he would say (as once he had said to Paul): “Always please remember, before complaining, that this is the cheapest sanatorium in the Europa!”

On one occasion when a whole deputation had come to complain about some particularly offensive rissoles, he had said: “I do not deny that they tasted a little strange, but listen to the explanation. The chef—he’s a good fellow really—wanted to give you all a special treat. He chose a celebrated recipe of Escoffier which required prime beef, truffles, fresh cream and abundance of three-star cognac. If anything was wrong, then the fault was Escoffier’s—probably the ingredients were far too rich!”

“We never got near enough to taste them,” replied the leader of the deputation. “Our complaint was about the way they stank!”

When the relatives of patients wrote letters of protest, M. Halfont would reply that there were no real grounds for complaint, at the same time discreetly pointing out that consumptives were notorious grumblers, and that their attitude was a recognised facet of their disease.

And now the close of Paul’s stay at Les Alpes was marked by a total loss of appetite and a consequent decrease in weight. In order to tempt his palate he went, one day, to a restaurant in the village, but found to his dismay that he could eat barely anything that he had ordered. In Michèle’s room he sat silent and still: sudden movement or speech made him feel very sick.

Dr. Vernet correlated the symptoms which Paul at last described to him, and said: “Monsieur, you are sickening for a cold or a grippe—it will be very interesting to see which.” Two days later, the symptoms having intensified, Dr. Bruneau said: “Monsieur, as ever I incline before the opinion of my esteemed patron, but I humbly advance the opinion that it is less a question of a cold than of a good bout of ’flu.” In the afternoon of the same day Paul visited the sanatorium dentist, who took one look at him and said: “My poor monsieur, you are quite yellow. Has no one told you that you are suffering from jaundice?”

“Cold or grippe?” Dr.

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