s?"

"I can't afford any more injections! They've done me no good, and they
cost too much. I can't afford any more treatments. I can only take
medicines. If you will give me some medicines--"

Dr Blank sat silent; tapping his desk with noiseless fingers; staring
thoughtfully across the room. It was evident that he had a proposition
to make; evident also that he doubted its reception.

"The best thing under the circumstances--the wisest thing," he said
slowly at last, "would be for you to go into hospital as an ordinary
patient. I could get you a bed in one of my own wards, where I could
look after you myself, in consultation with the first men in town. You
could have massage, electricity, radium, heat baths, every appliance
that could possibly be of use, and you could stay on long enough to give
them a chance. It would be an ordinary ward, remember, an ordinary bed
in an ordinary ward, and your neighbours would not be up to Newnham
standard! You would be awakened at five in the morning, and settled for
the night at eight. You would have to obey rules, which would seem to
you unnecessary and tiresome. You would be, I am afraid, profoundly
bored. On the other hand, you would have every attention that skill and
science can devise. You would not have to pay a penny, and you would
have a better chance than a duchess in a ducal palace. Think it over,
and let me know! If you decide to go, I'll manage the rest. Take a
day--a couple of days."

"I won't take two minutes, thank you! I'll decide now. I'll go, of
course, and thank you very much!"

Dr Blank beamed with satisfaction.

"Sensible girl! Sensible girl! That's right! That's right! That's
very good! You are doing the right thing, and we'll all do our best for
you, and your friend here will come to see you and help to make the time
pass. Interesting study, you know; valuable opportunity of studying
character if you look at it in that light! Why not turn it into
literary capital? `Sketches from a Hospital Bed,' `My Neighbours in B
Ward,' might make an uncommonly good series. Who knows? We may have
you turning out quite a literary star!"

Sophie smiled faintly, being one of the people who would rather walk
five miles than write the shortest letter. Many unexpected things
happen in this world, but it was certain that her own rise to literary
eminence would never swell the number! But she knew that Dr Blank was
trying to cheer her, so she ke