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ins.' 'Where?' he asked. 'In the legs,' she said after a pause. 'Ah, swellings?' Victoria bridled a little. This man was laying bare something, tearing at a secret. 'Are you a doctor, Mr Farwell?' she asked coldly. 'That's all right,' he said roughly, 'it doesn't need much learning to know what's the matter with a girl who stands for eleven hours a day. Are the veins of your legs swollen?' 'Yes,' said Victoria with an effort. She was frightened; she forgot to resent this wrenching at the privacy of her body. 'Ah; when do they hurt?' 'At night. They're all right in the morning.' 'You've got varicose veins, Victoria. You must give up your job.' 'I can't,' whispered the girl hoarsely. 'I've got nothing else.' 'Exactly. Either you go on and are a cripple for life or you stop and starve. Yours is a disease of occupation, purely a natural consequence of your work. Perfectly normal, perfectly. It is undesirable to encourage laziness; there are girls starving to-day for lack of work, but it would never do to reduce your hours to eight. It would interfere with the P. R. R. dividends.' Victoria looked at him without feeling. 'What am I to do?' she asked at length. 'Go to a hospital,' said Farwell. 'These institutions are run by the wealthy who pay two guineas a year ransom for a thousand pounds of profits and get in the bargain a fine sense of civic duty done. No doubt the directors of the P.R.R. contribute most generously.' 'I can't give up my job,' said Victoria dully. 'Perhaps they'll give you a stocking,' said Farwell, 'or sell it you, letting you pay in instalments so that you be not pauperised. This is called training in responsibility, also self-help.' Victoria got up. She could bear it no longer. Farwell saw her home and made her promise to apply for leave to see the doctor. As the door closed behind her he stood still for some minutes on the doorstep, filling his pipe. 'Well, well,' he said at length, 'the Government might think of that lethal chamber--but no, that would never do, it would deplete the labour market and hamper the commercial development of the Empire.' He walked away, a crackling little laugh floating behind him. The faint light of a lamp fell on his bowed head and shoulders, making him look like a Titan born a dwarf. Two days later Victoria went to the Carew. She had never before set foot in a hospital. Such intercourse as she had had with doctors was figu
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