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LXXXVI

n the spring Philip, having finished his dressing in the
Iout-patients’ department, became an in-patients’ clerk.
This appointment lasted six months. The clerk spent every
morning in the wards, first in the men’s, then in the wom-
en’s, with the house-physician; he wrote up cases, made
tests, and passed the time of day with the nurses. On two
afternoons a week the physician in charge went round with
a little knot of students, examined the cases, and dispensed
information. The work had not the excitement, the constant
change, the intimate contact with reality, of the work in the
out-patients’ department; but Philip picked up a good deal
of knowledge. He got on very well with the patients, and he
was a little flattered at the pleasure they showed in his atten-
dance on them. He was not conscious of any deep sympathy
in their sufferings, but he liked them; and because he put on
no airs he was more popular with them than others of the
clerks. He was pleasant, encouraging, and friendly. Like ev-
eryone connected with hospitals he found that male patients
were more easy to get on with than female. The women were
often querulous and ill-tempered. They complained bitterly
of the hard-worked nurses, who did not show them the at-
tention they thought their right; and they were troublesome,
ungrateful, and rude.
Presently Philip was fortunate enough to make a friend.

0 Of Human Bondage