"How do you mean, hit it off?"
"Oh well, she thought he didn't come up quick enough with a stretcher, and she pitched into him."
"But he was dead beat. Done. Couldn't she see that?"
"No. I don't suppose she could. She was a bit excited."
"She was horrible." Now that Mrs. Rankin was back safe she hated her. She knew she hated her.
"A bit cruel, perhaps. All the same," he said, "she was magnif—"
The lift had come hissing and wailing up behind him. The orderly stood in it, staring at Sutton's back, obsequious, yet impatient. She thought of the wounded men in the theatre downstairs.
"You mustn't keep them waiting," she said.
He stepped back into the lift. It lowered him rapidly. His chin was on a level with the floor when his mouth tried again and succeeded: "Magnificent."
And she knew that she had followed him out to near him say that John had been magnificent, too.