A good many of the patients were up this afternoon, for this was a ward for semi-convalescents. Not all were fully dressed: they moved about in dressing-gowns, or lay on the sofas, or played games at the little tables. One man was in uniform: Major Hunt, who sat in a big chair near his bed, and from time to time cast impatient glances at the door.
“Wish we weren’t going to lose you, Major,” said a tall man in a purple dressing-gown, who came up the ward with wonderful swiftness, considering that he was on crutches. “But I expect you’re keen to go.”
“Oh, yes; though I’ll miss this place.” Major Hunt cast an appreciative glance down the beautiful room. “It has been great luck to be here; there are not many hospitals like this in England. But—well, even if home is only a beastly little flat in Bloomsbury it is home, and I shall be glad to get back to my wife and the youngsters. I miss the kids horribly.”
“Yes, one does,” said the other.
“I daresay I’ll find them something of a crowd on wet days, when they can’t get out,” said Major Hunt, laughing. “The flat is small, and my wretched nerves are all on edge. But I want them badly, for all that. And it’s rough on my wife to be so much alone. She has led a kind of wandering life since war broke out—sometimes we’ve been able to have the kids with us, but not always.” He stretched himself wearily. “Gad! how glad I’ll be when the Boche is hammered and we’re able to have a decent home again!”
“We’re all like that,” said the other man. “I’ve seen my youngsters twice in the last year.”
“Yes, you’re worse off than I am,” said Major Hunt. He looked impatiently towards the door, fidgeting. “I wish Stella would come.”
But when a nurse brought him a summons presently, and he said good-bye to the ward and went eagerly down to the ground-floor (in an electric lift worked by an earl’s daughter in a very neat uniform), it was not his wife who awaited him in a little white-and-gold sitting-room, but a very tall man, looking slightly apologetic.
“Your wife is perfectly well,” said David Linton, checking the quick inquiry that rose to the soldier’s lips. “But I persuaded her to give me the job of calling for you to-day: our car is rather more comfortable than a taxi, and the doctor thought it would be a good thing for you to have a little run first.”
Major Hunt tried not to look disappointed, and failed signally.