"Well, we can but try, Dr. Leidner," I said cheerfully. "I'm sure I hope I can be of use to your wife. Perhaps she's nervous of natives."
"Oh, dear me, no." He shook his head, amused at the idea. "My wife likes Arabs very much - she appreciates their simplicity and their sense of humour. This is only her second season - we have been married less than two years - but she already speaks quite a fair amount of Arabic."
I was silent for a moment or two, then I had one more try.
"Can't you tell me at all what it is your wife is afraid of, Dr. Leidner?" I asked.
He hesitated. Then he said slowly, "I hope - I believe - that she will tell you that herself."
And that's all I could get out of him.
Chapter 3
GOSSIP
It was arranged that I should go to Tell Yarimjah the following week.
Mrs. Kelsey was settling into her house at Alwiyah, and I was glad to be able to take a few things off her shoulders.
During that time I heard one or two allusions to the Leidner expedition. A friend of Mrs. Kelsey's, a young squadron-leader, pursed his lips in surprise as he exclaimed:
"Lovely Louise. So that's her latest!" He turned to me. "That's our nickname for her, nurse. She's always known as Lovely Louise."
"Is she so very handsome then?" I asked.
"It's taking her at her own valuation. She thinks she is!"
"Now don't be spiteful, John," said Mrs. Kelsey.
"You know it's not only she who thinks so! Lots of people have been very smitten by her."
"Perhaps you're right. She's a bit long in the tooth, but she has a certain attraction."
"You were completely bowled over yourself," said Mrs. Kelsey, laughing.
The squadron-leader blushed and admitted rather shamefacedly:
"Well, she has a way with her. As for Leidner himself, he worships the ground she walks on - and all the rest of the expedition has to worship too! It's expected of them!"
"How many are there altogether?" I asked.
"All sorts and nationalities, nurse," said the squadron-leader cheerfully. "An English architect, a French Father from Carthage - he does the inscriptions - tablets and things, you know. And then there's Miss Johnson. She's English too - sort of general bottle-washer. And a little plump man who does the photography - he's an American. And the Mercados. Heaven knows what nationality they are. She's quite young - a snaky-looking creature - and oh! doesn't she hate Lovely Louise! And there are a couple of youngsters, and that's the lot. A few odd fish, but nice on the whole - don't you agree, Pennyman?"
He was appealing to an elderly man who was sitting thoughtfully twirling a pair of pince-nez.
The latter started and looked up.
"Yes - yes - very nice indeed. Taken individually, that is. Of course, Mercado is rather a queer fish -"
"He has such a very odd beard," put in Mrs. Kelsey. "A queer limp kind."
Major Pennyman went on without noticing her interruption.
"The young 'uns are both nice. The American's rather silent, and the English boy talks a bit too much. Funny, it's usually the other way round. Leidner himself is a delightful fellow - so modest and unassuming. Yes, individually they are all pleasant people. But somehow or other, I may have been fanciful, but the last time I went to see them I got a queer impression of something being wrong. I don't know what it was exactly... Nobody seemed quite natural. There was a queer atmosphere of tension. I can explain best what I mean by saying that they all passed the butter to each other too politely."
Blushing a little, because I don't like airing my own opinions too much, I said:
"If people are too much cooped up together it's got a way of getting on their nerves. I know that myself from experience in hospital."
"That's true," said Major Kelsey, "but it's early in the season, hardly time for that particular irritation to have set in."
"An expedition is probably like our life here in miniature," said Major Pennyman. "It has its cliques and rivalries and jealousies."
"It sounds as though they'd got a good many newcomers this year," said Major Kelsey.
"Let me see." The squadron-leader counted them off on his fingers. "Young Coleman is new, so is Reiter. Emmott was out last year and so were the Mercados. Father Lavigny is a new-comer. He's come in place of Dr. Byrd, who was ill this year and couldn't come out. Carey, of course, is an old hand. He's been out ever since the beginning, five years ago. Miss Johnson's been out nearly as many years as Carey."
"I always thought they got on so well together at Tell Yarimjah," remarked Major Kelsey. "They seemed like a happy family - which is really surprising when one considers what human nature is! I'm sure Nurse Leatheran agrees with me."
"Well," I said. "I don't know that you're not right! The rows I've known in hospital and starting often from nothing more than a dispute about a pot of tea."
"Yes, one tends to get petty in close communities," said Major Pennyman. "All the same I feel there must be something more to it in this case. Leidner is such a gentle, unassuming man, with really a remarkable amount of tact. He's always managed to keep his expedition happy and on good terms with each other. And yet I did notice that feeling of tension the other day."
Mrs. Kelsey laughed.
"And you don't see the explanation? Why, it leaps to the eye!"
"What do you mean?"
"Mrs. Leidner, of course."
"Oh, come, Mary," said her husband, "she's a charming woman - not at all the quarrelsome kind."
"I didn't say she was quarrelsome. She causes quarrels!"
"In what way? And why should she?"
"Why? Why? Because she's bored. She's not an archaeologist, only the wife of one. She's bored shut away from any excitements and so she provides her own drama. She amuses herself by setting other people by the ears."
"Mary, you don't know in the least. You're merely imagining."
"Of course I'm imagining! But you'll find I'm right. Lovely Louise doesn't look like the Mona Lisa for nothing! She mayn't mean any harm, but she likes to see what will happen."
"She's devoted to Leidner."
"Oh! I dare say. I'm not suggesting vulgar intrigues. But she's an allumeuse, that woman."
"Women are so sweet to each other," said Major Kelsey.
"I know. Cat, cat, cat, that's what you men say. But we're usually right about our own sex."
"All the same," said Major Pennyman thoughtfully, "assuming all Mrs. Kelsey's uncharitable surmises to be true, I don't think it would quite account for that curious sense of tension - rather like the feeling there is before a thunderstorm. I had the impression very strongly that the storm might break any minute."
"Now don't frighten nurse," said Mrs. Kelsey. "She's going there in three days' time and you'll put her right off."
"Oh, you won't frighten me," I said, laughing.
All the same I thought a good deal about what had been said. Dr. Leidner's curious use of the word "safer" recurred to me. Was it his wife's secret fear, unacknowledged or expressed perhaps, that was reacting on the rest of the party? Or was it the actual tension (or perhaps the unknown cause of it) that was reacting on her nerves?
I looked up the word "allumeuse" that Mrs. Kelsey had used in a dictionary, but couldn't get any sense out of it.
"Well," I thought to myself, "I must wait and see."
Chapter 4
I ARRIVE IN HASSANIEH
Three days later I left Baghdad.
I was sorry to leave Mrs. Kelsey and the baby, who was a little love and was thriving splendidly, gaining her proper number of ounces every week. Major Kelsey took me to the station and saw me off. I should arrive at Kirkuk the following morning, and there some one was to meet me.
I slept badly. I never sleep very well in a train and I was troubled by dreams.
The next morning, however, when I looked out of the window it was a lovely day and I felt interested and curious about the people I was going to see.
As I stood on the platform hesitating and looking about me I saw a young man coming towards me. He had a round pink face, and really, in all my life, I have never seen anyone who seemed so exactly like a young man out of one of Mr. P.G. Wodehouse's books.
"Hallo, 'allo, 'allo," he said. "Are you Nurse Leatheran? Well, I mean you must be - I can see that. Ha ha! My name's Coleman. Dr. Leidner sent me along. How are you feeling? Beastly journey and all that? Don't I know these trains! Well, here we are - had any breakfast? This your kit? I say, awfully modest, aren't you? Mrs. Leidner has four suitcases and a trunk - to say nothing of a hat-box and a patent pillow, and this, that and the other. Am I talking too much? Come along to the old bus."
There was what I heard called later a station wagon waiting outside. It was a little like a wagonette, a little like a lorry and a little like a car. Mr. Coleman helped me in, explaining that I had better sit next to the driver so as to get less jolting.
Jolting! I wonder the whole contraption didn't fall to pieces! And nothing like a road - just a sort of track all ruts and holes. Glorious East indeed! When I thought of our splendid arterial roads in England it made me quite homesick.
Mr. Coleman leaned forward from his seat behind me and yelled in my ear a good deal.
"Track's in pretty good condition," he shouted just after we had all been thrown up in our seats till we nearly touched the roof.
And apparently he was speaking quite seriously.
"Very good for you - jogs the liver," he said. "You ought to know that, nurse."
"A stimulated liver won't be much good to me if my head's split open," I observed tartly.
"You should come along here after it's rained! The skids are glorious. Most of the time one's going sideways."
To this I did not respond.
Presently we had to cross the river, which we did on the craziest ferry-boat you can imagine. To my mind it was a mercy we ever got across, but every one seemed to think it was quite usual.
It took us about four hours to get to Hassanieh, which, to my surprise, was quite a big place. Very pretty it looked, too, before we got there from the other side of the river - standing up quite white and fairy-like with minarets. It was a bit different, though, when one had crossed the bridge and come right into it. Such a smell, and everything ramshackle and tumble-down, and mud and mess everywhere.
Mr. Coleman took me to Dr. Reilly's house, where, he said, the doctor was expecting me to lunch.
Dr. Reilly was just as nice as ever, and his house was nice too, with a bathroom and everything spick and span. I had a nice bath, and by the time I got back into my uniform and came down I was feeling fine.
Lunch was just ready and we went in, the doctor apologizing for his daughter, whom he said was always late.
We'd just had a very good dish of eggs in sauce when she came in and Dr. Reilly said, "Nurse, this is my daughter Sheila."
She shook hands, hoped I'd had a good journey, tossed off her hat, gave a cool nod to Mr. Coleman and sat down.
"Well, Bill," she said. "How's everything?"
He began to talk to her about some party or other that was to come off at the club, and I took stock of her.
I can't say I took to her much. A thought too cool for my liking. An off-hand sort of girl, though good-looking. Black hair and blue eyes - a pale sort of face and the usual lip-sticked mouth. She'd a cool, sarcastic way of talking that rather annoyed me. I had a probationer like her under me once - a girl who worked well, I'll admit, but whose manner always riled me.
It looked to me rather as though Mr. Coleman was gone on her. He stammered a bit, and his conversation became slightly more idiotic than it was before, if that was possible! He reminded me of a large stupid dog wagging its tail and trying to please.
After lunch Dr. Reilly went off to the hospital, and Mr. Coleman had some things to get in the town, and Miss Reilly asked me whether I'd like to see round the town a bit or whether I'd rather stop in the house. Mr. Coleman, she said, would be back to fetch me in about an hour.
"Is there anything to see?" I asked.
"There are some picturesque corners," said Miss Reilly. "But I don't know that you'd care for them. They're extremely dirty."
The way she said it rather nettled me. I've never been able to see that picturesqueness excuses dirt.
In the end she took me to the club, which was pleasant enough, overlooking the river, and there were English papers and magazines there.
When we got back to the house Mr. Coleman wasn't there yet, so we sat down and talked a bit. It wasn't easy somehow.
She asked me if I'd met Mrs. Leidner yet.
"No," I said. "Only her husband."
"Oh," she said. "I wonder what you'll think of her?"
I didn't say anything to that. And she went on:
"I like Dr. Leidner very much. Everybody likes him."
That's as good as saying, I thought, that you don't like his wife.
I still didn't say anything and presently she asked abruptly:
"What's the matter with her? Did Dr. Leidner tell you?"
I wasn't going to start gossiping about a patient before I got there even, so I said evasively:
"I understand she's a bit run down and wants looking after."
She laughed - a nasty sort of laugh - hard and abrupt.
"Good God," she said. "Aren't nine people looking after her already enough?"
"I suppose they've all got their work to do," I said.
"Work to do? Of course they've got work to do. But Louise comes first - she sees to that all right."
"No," I said to myself. "You don't like her."
"All the same," went on Miss Reilly, "I don't see what she wants with a professional hospital nurse. I should have thought amateur assistance was more in her line; not some one who'll jam a thermometer in her mouth, and count her pulse and bring everything down to hard facts."
