Part 19 (1/2)
”Then you shall do so now,” said the chairman, and he put his hand on the bell beside him, and the messenger appeared.
”You can not intend, sir, to examine the girl here,” said John.
”And why not?”
”Before so many--and all of us men save one. Surely the matron----”
The canon rose to his feet again. ”My young brother is naturally sensitive, my lord, but I a.s.sure him his delicate feelings are wasted on a girl like this. He forgets that the shame lies in the girl's sin, not in her just and necessary punishment.”
”Bring her in,” said the chairman. The matron whispered to the messenger, and he left the room.
”Pardon me, sir,” said John Storm; ”if it is your expectation that I should question the nurse on her sin, as the canon says, I can not do so.”
”Can not?”
”Well, I will not.”
”And is that your idea of your duty as a chaplain?”
”It is the matron's duty, not the chaplain's, to----”
”The matron! The matron! This is your parish, sir--your parish. A great public inst.i.tution is in danger of a disgraceful scandal, and you who are responsible for its spiritual welfare--really, gentlemen----”
Again the canon rose with a conciliatory smile.
”I think I understand my young friend,” he said, ”and your lords.h.i.+p and the h.o.a.rd will appreciate his feelings, however you may disapprove of his judgment. What generous heart can not sympathize with the sensitive spirit of the youthful clergyman who shrinks from the spectacle of guilt and shame in a young and perhaps beautiful woman? But if it will relieve your lords.h.i.+p from an embarra.s.sing position, I am myself willing----”
”Thank you,” said the chairman; and then the girl was brought into the room in charge of Sister Allworthy.
She was holding her head down and trying to cover her face with her hands.
”Your name, girl?” said the canon.
”Mary Elizabeth Love,” she faltered.
”You are aware, Mary Elizabeth Love, that our excellent and indulgent matron” (here he bowed to a stout lady who sat in the open s.p.a.ce) ”has been put to the painful duty of reporting you for suspension, which is equivalent to your immediate discharge. Now, I can not hold out a hope that the board will not ratify her recommendation, but it may perhaps qualify the terms of your 'character' if you can show these gentlemen that the unhappy lapse from good conduct which brings you to this position of shame and disgrace is due in any measure to irregularities practised perhaps within this hospital, or to the temptations of any one connected with it.”
The girl began to cry.
”Speak, nurse; if you have anything to say, the gentlemen are willing to hear it.”
The girl's crying deepened into sobs.
”Useless!” said the chairman.
”Impossible!” said the canon.
But some one suggested that perhaps the nurse had a girl friend in the hospital who could throw light on the difficult situation. Then Sister Allworthy whispered to the matron, who said, ”Bring her in.”
John Storm's face had a.s.sumed a fixed and absent expression, but he saw a girl of larger size than Polly Love enter the room with a gleam, as it were, of suns.h.i.+ne on her golden-red hair. It was Glory.