SURGEON AT ARMS

'It'll probably be equally expensive,' Graham demurred mildly.

The politician's gesture brushed this aside impatiently. 'Naturally, there'll be a pent-up demand, but the whole point of a proper health service is that it gets progressively cheaper. When people are given the proper treatment they've been denied through poverty-not to mention given better working conditions, better houses, and a higher standard of living from decent wages-the need for medicines and doctors will simply diminish. We'll all live healthier and longer. Eh, Sir Graham?' He grinned. 'As a medical man, mustn't you agree?'

'But if we all live longer we'll simply suffer more intractable ailments and need even more doctors.'

'Sir Graham! You're belittling your profession. What about the inevitable great advances in curative medicine?'

'And the inevitable increases in expensive drugs? Penicillin's a dreadful price as it is.' Graham felt uneasy entering in an argument with a professional debater, but to his relief the waiter interrupted by serving the main course. 'What on earth's this?' he exclaimed in surprise.

'Whale steak,' the M.P. told him proudly. 'We're importing tons of it to eke out the meat ration. I assure you it's absolutely delicious.'

Then the young man began talking equally energetically about India, a subject which bored Graham even more than cricket.

It was clear that Haileybury was enjoying the occasion immensely. He rose to make a short if wholly unmemorable speech, and as they prepared to break up Graham noticed with amusement he was noticeably flushed with official port.

'Graham, old fellow, if you're going my way perhaps we can stroll together?' Haileybury suggested with an unknown heartiness.

'I'm not going anywhere in particular. Shall we take a turn round St James's Park? We've plenty to talk about.'

As they walked round the lake, the chilly spring air restored Haileybury to his usual oppressive sobriety. They talked animatedly for half an hour about the first steps for bringing the new unit into being, until Graham broke off unexpectedly, 'You know, Eric, this new task you've saddled me with has saved my life. Literally, I mean. I've never thought of suicide-and I know a surprising number of one's acquaintances have at least once, quite seriously. But I wouldn't have been too sure of myself, not at this stage of my life, without some fresh interest.'

'You're being fanciful again,' Haileybury told him with a thin smile.

'I suppose you're entitled to think so. You know me better than almost anybody. But I mean it. Without something big to tackle, some worthwhile achievement to make, I'd get depressed. Dreadfully depressed. It seems to get worse with age. And when a patient's depressed, you know well enough, they've a different personality, there's no knowing what they might do. It's as dangerous as walking along the edge of a cliff.'

Haileybury nodded slowly as they walked. 'What makes you imagine I haven't suffered myself?'

Graham looked at him sharply. He had imagined Haileybury's personality breasting the tides of life with the unexciting stability of a coal-barge on the Thames. It struck him that although Haileybury had grown to understand a good deal of his own inner workings, he knew absolutely nothing of Haileybury's.

'I hope the intolerable amount of work you are about to undertake will put such unpleasant notions from your mind,' Haileybury added.

'I'm safe as long as I'm occupied every minute of the day. I hate living alone.' Graham hesitated, but decided to go on. Haileybury, of all people, had become his only confessor. 'I'd hoped to cure that particular deficiency, but I'm afraid it's not to be.'

'You're thinking of taking a companion?'

'I notice you avoid the word "wife", and I can't blame you for that either.' Graham sounded a shade weary. 'You know I lived with a girl during the war? She was my ward sister from the annex. We've met up again. I want to marry her. I can't live without her. That's a stupid expression, much overused, but as I explained a moment ago it might have been quite literally true. But she doesn't want to take the same risk with me twice, and I can hardly object to her point of view.'

'Who might this lady be? Would I have met her?'

'I should imagine so. She's the children's ward sister at the Kenworth.'

Haileybury stopped dead. 'Sister Mills? But what an amazing coincidence!'

'It isn't at all. John Bickley got her the job after I kicked her out in 1944.'

'I see,' said Haileybury. He put his fingers together and blew on them.

'I do wish you wouldn't do that,' Graham burst out. 'It's irritated me for years.'

Haileybury hastily thrust his hands in his pockets. 'I'm sorry there's a difficulty between you,' he sympathized.

'She can't understand that I don't _want _to go back to my old ways-because of the war, or old age,' Graham ended gloomily, 'or perhaps just disgust with myself in general.'

'I suppose to some extent the seven ages of man are all strangers to each other,' Haileybury observed.