He was red-faced, short and stocky, bald as the nose of a rocket; he looked more like a bartender or a wrestler than like a doctor. He held out a hand and I took it but I didn’t hang onto it long. I hadn’t come to see him, but to see Ellen, and would he please have me taken to her.
«You made excellent time getting here, Mr. Andrews. There’s no hurry.»
«You’re not in a hurry, but I am. Where is she?»
«Please sit down, Mr. Andrews. You won’t lose any time with her by sitting down a moment here. It’s almost two hours before we must start preparing her, and I cannot possibly let you have more than an hour with her. Even to let you spend that long is stretching things. And wouldn’t you rather have the last hour, from one until two, so you can be with her right up to the time when we’ll have to start preparing her?»
«All right,» I said. «Providing you let her know right away that I’m here and that I’ll be with her at one, so she won’t lie there wondering if I’ll make it in time or not.»
«She already knows. The desk phoned me while you were being brought here and I immediately relayed word of your arrival to Senator Gallagher; she knows that you are here and that you’ll spend the hour from one to two with her. Now will you sit down?»
I sat down. I said, «Sorry, Doctor, I’m edgy.»
«Which is another reason why I’d rather you didn’t see her immediately. I want you to be calm, not excited, when you talk to her. Do you think you can be?»
«I think I can pretend to be,» I said, «What happened? When and how was she brought here? How long has this been going on?»
«The tumor must have started developing at least a year ago. The first symptom, headaches, started developing in January. At first they were intermittent and not too severe; Senator Gallagher went to a doctor for treatment late in March, about two months ago.»
I nodded. That would have been immediately after our vacation in Havana. She’d probably been more ill then than she’d let me know.
Grundleman was saying, «The doctor she went to diagnosed the trouble as migraine and treated it as such. No fault of his; the location of the tumor is such that the symptoms at that time were almost identical with those of migraine. And for a while she seemed to be recovering. Until ten days ago there was a sudden setback, one that made her doctor suspect his original diagnosis and suggest that she come here immediately for a thorough examination. We discovered and located the tumor and I advised an immediate operation. She insisted, however, on waiting two weeks, despite the increased danger the wait would entail, until she had finished with some legislative business she considered extremely important.»
I closed my eyes. Jupiter project. She’d considered it important enough to risk her life for. Or had it been the project itself, rather than my driving interest in the project and her love for me? «Go on,» I said.
He shrugged. «There was nothing I could do. We scheduled the operation for this coming Saturday. Arranged to have Dr. Weissach—do you know of him?»
I shook my head.
«Probably the best brain surgeon in the world. Lives in Lisbon, but has no practice of his own, just operates. Where possible people are flown to Lisbon for him to operate on, but in an emergency case like that of Senator Gallagher he will come to the patient, although at a much higher fee.»
«Any question of money?»
«Oh, no. Senator Gallagher can meet all expenses. Dr. Weissach is already here. He arrived this morning and has made his preliminary examination and arrangements. He is resting now. Is there anything else I can tell you?»
«Yes. What are her chances?»
«With a surgeon like Weissach, I would say they are excellent.»
«How long after the operation before she is out of danger, completely out of danger?»
«I would much rather answer that question after the operation.»
«All right. I’ll have to phone my office to let them know how long I’ll be gone, but that can wait.»
I walked into Ellen’s room at one o’clock exactly.
She looked pale, otherwise no different from the way she’d looked when I’d last seen her. She smiled up at me. I didn’t kiss her, not yet, not just then; I just stood looking down at her. Striking, her chestnut hair on a white pillow.
She must have realized that it was. «Take a last look at the hair, darling,» she said. «They’re going to shave it off, you know.»
«To hell with your hair,» I said. Maybe not a romantic first remark, but she knew what I meant and smiled again.
«Woman,» I said, «why didn’t you let me know this was happening? You’ve known for ten days you were going to have an operation.»
«I didn’t want you to worry. Oh, I wanted you here, wanted to see you once more before the operation—in case. But the operation was to be this coming Saturday; I was going to phone you Friday evening and have you come on a night plane and be with me Saturday morning, and Sunday you could have gone back. This way—I’m sorry it was such short notice, darling. But I’m so glad you came anyway. Aren’t you going to kiss me?»
I kissed her very gently, tenderly.
She said, «Now Max, pull up that chair. Sit and let me talk till I’ve brought you up to date. Dr. Grundleman said you didn’t even let him give you my message.»
«I didn’t want to waste time, that’s all. I just wanted to get here. What was the message?»
«That President Jansen will appoint Whitlow, and that Whitlow has made the promise I asked him to make.»
«Woman, why didn’t you have that operation ten days ago when Grundleman said you should have it? That Jupiter rocket is going to take a couple of years to build anyway, so what difference would a few more weeks make?»
«I couldn’t have stalled it then, Max. It was lined up to go through the House, everything set and ready. It would have gone through from there without me.»
«But then why didn’t—»
«Don’t you see, darling? I’d have been out of circulation at just the wrong time, when the appointments were being made. And I wanted you to have that job. Besides, I thought Grundleman was exaggerating the danger and the need for rushing into an operation. I thought two weeks more wouldn’t matter, that it wouldn’t involve any additional risk. And if it was going to kill me anyway, I wanted to make sure you’d have what you wanted, what we both wanted you to have.»
«Quit talking as though you’re going to—Damn it, woman, you’re going to be okay.»
«Of course I am. But I had to consider the other chance. Here’s what happened yesterday. I saw Prexy at two and I took a short cut by bringing Whitlow with me. Of course I left him out in the anteroom when I went in. I got right down to business by telling Prexy who I thought would be the best man for the job and he was pleased. He said he thought Whitlow would be ideal and that he deserved a better spot than the one he had in the State Department.
Yes, he’d be glad to appoint Whitlow to the directorship. He’d ask his secretary to make an appointment for Whitlow to see him.
«I grinned at him and told him I’d been so sure he’d like the idea that I’d taken a chance and brought Whitlow with me, that he’d allowed fifteen minutes for my appointment and only two had been used up and why couldn’t he save himself another appointment by telling Whitlow now? So he had his secretary bring Whitlow in, and that was that. Except, darling, for the best parti Prexy remembered about you and suggested you to Whitlow for the supervisor job, gave you quite a build-up. While he was doing it—» Ellen giggled a little. «—I could see Whitlow beginning to sweat because he’d promised to appoint whoever I suggested for the job and here was Prexy putting the pressure on him. Then he happened to glance toward me and I nodded. You should have seen the relief on his face, Max. He almost stuttered, he was so eager to tell Jansen that he’d appoint you.»