Surgeon at Arms

swindled me out of my money. He didn’t even buy those pernicious francs in the first place.’
    ‘How much did you lose?’
    ‘Five thousand quid.’
    John’s eyebrows shot up.
    ‘Yes, I’m a mug,’ Graham admitted. ‘Cazalay might as well have sold me a gold brick or the Eiffel Tower— didn’t some bright Frenchman flog it to the Germans for scrap during the war?’ He undid a length of bandage round his waist, and slipped the white linen operating trousers from his spindly legs. ‘But perhaps it was a reasonable fee to pay for the shock treatment. I’ve learnt my lesson. Henceforth Trevose sticks to the straight and narrow path.’
    ‘Oh, come, Graham! You’re making yourself sound like an old lag, not an ornament to one of our Orders of Chivalry.’
    Graham threw his trousers into the corner with an impatient gesture. ‘You know what I mean. Well, you ought to. You don’t imagine I’m unaware of your going about referring to me as “Flash Harry”?’ John laughed. ‘By the way, I’m giving up my private practice,’ Graham added.
    The anaesthetist paused in packing away his apparatus and stared at him. ‘You’re not serious?’
    ‘I’m perfectly serious. I’m abandoning the private racket for a full-time job. On the new unit Haileybury’s always talking about. I’m to be its first Director.’
    ‘But Graham—your whole life’s been built round your private work. Everyone in London is green with envy at your reputation. You already get patients sent to you from all over the country. Once things get really back to normal you’ll be getting them from all over the bloody world. Surely you can’t throw all that away?’
    ‘My life wasn’t built round private work during the war, and that was the only time I was happy.’ He pulled on his grey suit in silence. As John snapped the two catches of his leather case, Graham continued, ‘Perhaps the Government are right to set themselves against fee-paying medicine. It’s immoral really, if you look at it carefully. It didn’t matter so much even thirty years ago, when the doctor could generally do damn all whether you paid him or not. Besides, I want to think. Perhaps to write. Rushing round nursing homes chasing guineas, you haven’t a chance to do either. Perhaps I’ve an academic streak in me somewhere—don’t forget my father was a professor. He left a massive volume on the synovial membranes as his tombstone, which is more than I shall ever achieve.’
    ‘I still can’t take you seriously, Graham.’
    ‘Then wait and see. You won’t even have to wait long. The appointment’s being announced by the Ministry at the beginning of next month. I’ll have to resign from Blackfriars, of course, which will be a wrench, though mainly a sentimental one. There doesn’t seem the slightest prospect of the place being rebuilt in my lifetime. And the staff there will all be working for the Government anyway, whether they like it or not. I’m giving up my flat—I’ve got to economize and I want something smaller, nearer the site, to organize things.’ Graham’s voice suddenly lit up. ‘It’ll be like those early days at the annex, all over again. Except this time everyone will be on my side. I’ll only have to snap my fingers for equipment to arrive by the lorryload.’
    John stood looking at him, his bony long-fingered hands resting on the top of his case. ‘It must have been a sacrifice. Or at least a horribly difficult decision.’
    ‘Not really. Like most of the big steps in my life, I didn’t think twice about it.’ As John slipped the green gown from his shirt, Graham added as off-handedly as possible, ‘You know, I really would rather like to see Clare again.’
    ‘That’s the best news you’ve given me today.’ Graham felt this sounded vaguely condescending, but asked, ‘Do you think she’d respond to some sort of social invitation? To a dinner, a show, something like that?’
    ‘Why don’t you come and find out? I’m just off to Kenworth to do a case. I know for a fact she’s on duty. Are you free?’
    Graham hesitated. Then his natural impulsiveness made him say, ‘All right. You can give me a lift.’ As John picked up his instrument-case he added, ‘After all, I’ve nothing to lose, have I? If I admit to you now that I treated Clare quite disgustingly, it’s something which I have only just come to admit to myself.’
    ‘Quite so,’ said John.
    It suddenly struck him how much Graham was starting