We were taken to a table in an alcove, somewhat secluded from the rest of the room.

“A little seclusion is so much better if one wants to indulge in conversation,” he said.

I was feeling uneasy and yet at the same time exhilarated. I had come a long and devious way to find this man and here I was actually seated opposite him. It was success indeed.

“I hope you are ready to experiment with Turkish food. Miss Pleydell.

It is rather different from what you have at home . or hospital fare. But one has to be adventurous, don’t you agree? “

“Yes, of course.”

“You don’t seem very sure. Are you adventurous?”

“Surely one must be to come out to the Crimea, to war?”

“Up to a point, I agree. But you are a dedicated nurse and would doubtless go to the ends of the earth if your profession called you there. Would you like caviar? Otherwise there is a very tasty dish of meat stuffed with peppers which have been treated in all sorts of sauces.”

“For fear of being judged unadventurous, I might try that,” I said.

“Good, and after that I suggest this Circassian chicken. It’s cooked in a sauce of walnuts.”

“Don’t you think we should wait for the others?”

“Oh no …”

“But I was supposed to be Monsieur Lablanche’s guest.”

“He has the ebullient Henrietta to entertain.”

“Do you really think they will come here?”

“There is a possibility. I am not sure of the number of these eating places in Constantinople, but at least this is one of them, and a renowned one … so there is a possibility that they might come here.”

“I thought you were sure they would come, that it was a favourite place of Monsieur Lablanche.”

“He is a man of discrimination so he will certainly know of this place.”

“You are not very direct. You gave me quite a different impression a little while ago.”

“We make our own impressions. Miss Pleydell, but why bother ourselves with such a trivial matter? Here we are dining a deux. It is a good opportunity for us to talk.”

“Do you think we have anything to talk about?”

“My dear Miss Pleydell, it would be two very dull people who had nothing to talk about just for one brief evening. We have worked together … You have formed your impressions of me…”

“And you of me. That is, if you have ever noticed me.”

“I am an observant man. I miss little, you know.”

“But surely some things are too insignificant for your notice.”

“Certainly not. Miss Pleydell.”

The liveried man in the cummerbund was approaching our table with a waiter slightly less splendidly clad than himself, and the order was given. Dr. Ad. air chose a wine and in a very short time the first course was brought to us.

He lifted his glass.

“To you … and all the nightingales who left home to come across the sea to nurse our soldiers.”

I lifted mine.

“And to the doctors who came, too.”

“Your first protege will now be on his way home,” he said.

“Oh, you mean Tom. Yes, he is on the way home with Ethel. They are going to be married.”

“And live happily ever after?”

“That is what is hoped for. There is a farm and Ethel is a country girl.”

“And your second?”

“You mean William Clift who is recovering slowly.”

“That was a near thing.” He looked at me steadily.

The Circassian chicken arrived at that moment and there was silence while it was served.

“I am sure you will find it delicious,” said Dr. Adair. He filled my glass.

“Yes,” he went on, “I wanted to talk to you about William Clift.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“You look surprised.”

“I am surprised that you should think me worthy to discuss a patient with you. I fancied you thought nurses should remain in their places and should merely run hither and thither at the doctors’ command and be consigned to the menial tasks.”

“Well, should they not? That does not mean that I should not want to discuss William Clift with you. His wounds are healing. He was brought close to death, but he survived … and in due course he will be quite fit and probably live to a ripe age. He could so easily have been dead, you know.”

“Yes, I do know that.”

“Those bullets were deeply embedded. They had started to fester. It was touch and go.”

I looked at him. I thought: I was right about him. He wants praise.

All the time he wants glory for Dr. Adair.

“You will remember I used unorthodox methods. It was fortunate that I did. If I had not, Miss Pleydell, William Clift would not be alive today.”

“You gave him something to drink …”

“More than that. I put him under hypnosis. That method is not always approved of by medical opinion at home. But, Miss Pleydell, my methods do not always fit in with conventional ones and therefore I am not a conventional doctor.”

“I know that.”

“I believe that pain retards recovery. A patient must be freed from pain whenever possible. When the body suffers pain, restoration is delayed. I would use any method to eliminate pain.”

“That seems to me very laudable.”

“But there are some people in the medical profession who do not agree.

Did I say some? I mean many. They believe that pain is bestowed by God or someone on High as just retribution.

“Let there be pain and there was pain!” I am very much against that. I have been in the East and I do not disdain methods which are different from ours. We have advanced a long way in some directions, but there are other ways in which we are behind a people who, by some standards, would be called primitive in comparison with us. Am I boring you. Miss Pleydell? “

“Indeed not. I am most interested.”

“You were present. You saw what happened with William Clift. I saved his life. But for me he would be dead and your Lily would be a widow, her child an orphan.”

Why must he boast? I thought. He is right, of course. He did a marvelous thing. But why must he detract from his action by this continual boasting?

“I put him to sleep so that I could perform the operation without his body resisting me. It is a method learned in Arabia. It is not to be used lightly. I only bring it into my work when it is absolutely necessary. You, Miss Pleydell, were so insistent that I should save this man’s life. I had to show you that I could do it. And I did. “

“I cannot understand why you had to show me … just a nurse … just one of the adjuncts which can be useful at times but are on the whole a liability.”

“You are too modest, and I think that modesty is not really a part of your nature. I have come to the conclusion that this is false modesty.

Do you like the chicken? “

“Thank you, yes. I am not modest, but you have made your opinion of us very clear.”

“Then why do I bother to tell you this?”

“Perhaps you like everyone to know how clever you are?”

“True. But I have no need to stress the point with you. You already know.”

I laughed suddenly and he laughed with me.

“Let us get to the point,” he went on.

“I believe you once had a very poor opinion of me. You believed I had deserted my post to go away and revel in riotous behaviour. You were brought to me and there I was in native costume. What did you think?”

“That you were taking a respite from the hard work of the hospital.”

“I knew it. That is why I have to explain. Tell me, did you think I had a harem tucked away somewhere, that I was living a sybarite existence, indulging in all kinds of vices?”

“I had read your books, you know.”

“That was kind of you.”

“Not kind at all. They were given to me and I was fascinated by your adventures and I could see the sort of man you were. It came out in your books.”

“It was careless of me to have betrayed myself. I have lived among natives, as I described. It is only when you become one of them that you really know them. I have learned much from them. When you were brought to me, I was just about to set off on a mission. You know there was an appalling lack of materiel at the hospital. Do you remember the man with the amputated leg? Can you imagine the shock to that man’s system, with nothing to deaden the pain? What were his chances of recovery? Very poor. And yet not to have amputated would be certain death. There was just a faint hope. With certain medicines there would have been a fair chance. That was how I was expected to perform operations. So … I went off to find means of putting people to sleep. I knew where I could get these things. Drugs. Drugs to sedate our patients, my dear Miss Pleydell; and not the drugs which are commonly used in hospitals. These drugs would only be given to one of their own kind. So I had to be one of them. It is more than a matter of dress and of speech … it is outlook. They know me as they know themselves. They trust me. If I had not gone on that little expedition when you believed me to have deserted my post and gone to revel in the delights of the harem I could not have saved the life of your William Clift.”

“Then I am sorry I misjudged you.”

“Thank you. You are forgiven. It is so easy to draw the wrong conclusions, to blame in ignorance.”

“I do realize this.”

“And you have changed your opinion of me?”

I hesitated and he looked shocked.

I said: “It is not for me to form opinions. I could only do so from ignorance, as you have pointed out.”

A waiter came to take the plates away and bring a rich cake of pastry filled with nuts and honey called baklava; a tray of sweetmeats was also laid before us.