Читать книгу Magnificent Obsession - Lloyd C. Douglas - Страница 14

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For some time, Bobby had been conscious of a dull rumble of conversation, just beyond the screen. It began to annoy him. Some stupid ass was airing his home-brewed philosophy.

"All this here talk about Providence...Providence; bah—I say!...Take this very case, for instance!...Here is a noted man who has made himself so useful that people came to him for thousands of miles for help that nobody could give them but him!...Look at me, for instance!..."

Bobby scowled, and muttered, "Yeah!...Look at you!...It's bad enough to have to listen to you!"

"Look at me! I came here clear from Ioway; and lucky enough I got here when I did...Last operation he ever performed, they tell me!...And they might have saved his life too if that pulmotor thing, or whatever it was, hadn't been in use on that drunken young What's-his-name with the rich granddaddy! What right had he to be alive, anyhow...now I ask you?"

It may have been Bobby's sudden pallor that attracted the attention of the nurse who sat at the little desk by the door. She quickly crossed the room and asked if there was anything he wanted. Bobby swallowed with a dry throat, attempted a grateful smile, and replied weakly, "Perhaps I should go back...feel better in bed...not very strong yet. Tell them, will you?"

His exit from the solarium was effected with such promptness that the patients observed it. Who was this youngster? Questions were asked and answered. The man who had discoursed of the unseemly ways of Providence was deeply contrite...Wished he'd known, he said.

Bobby's nurse stepped out into the corridor, after putting him to bed, and an interne passing by remarked, "So he knows all about it."

"Well, he had to find out sometime, didn't he?"

"Yes—but he's a pretty good scout...And it was a rotten way to dish it up to him!"

"You should worry," snapped Miss Bates.