They chatted for a few minutes and then Col. Charbonneau excused himself, and walked away. McCall followed a few minutes later.
“Do you know I expect to rejoin my regiment in a week?” said Hamilton. “We’re going back together, McCall and I. You see both of us got our commissions at the same training camp and we’ve gone through the war together.”
“I suppose the war has bred pretty strong friendships, hasn’t it?”
“Yes. It’s something like the college fraternity spirit, only stronger. There’s McCall, for instance. I owe my life to him. We’ll always be friends. And lately I’ve taken a liking to Dr. Levin. I suppose I owe my life to him too. He’s rather hard to understand at first.”
“Hard to understand? He’s simply deeper, more thorough than the average person.”
“I suppose that’s it,” agreed Hamilton. “He criticises things, has so many theories. But when you get to know him he’s all right. You know I’ve never had much to do with Jews before. Not for any particular reason, but because I didn’t come in contact with ’em. But my experience with Levin simply shows that there are some good Jews. I’ve noticed that he’s more like the other men one meets here. I suppose ‘cosmopolitan’ is the word. I suppose you’ve made lots of friends, too.”
“With a woman,” mused Meadows, “it’s different. There’s a certain ‘camaraderie’ among the nurses, but it’s not the same thing as a man’s friendship. Women have no such thing as friendship, in fact. Oh, I suppose I should say seldom. Take man’s club life. Women may organize for a special purpose—to study, to sew, to give plays, to play auction bridge, to knit sweaters—but not for simple friendship. Women in the same set are always antagonistic to each other. They try to outdo each other in the matter of beauty, of dress, of personal charm. They are always competitors for the potential male.”
“But you have friends?”
Meadows laughed. “It’s like this. When the patients—my boys—are convalescent they become sentimental and romantic. Sometimes this friendship, or whatever it is, lasts after they’ve recovered. They come back and invite me out, or bring me candy or flowers.”
“And then what?”