Chapter 55 Chapter Fifty-Five

Philip's view of the life of a medical student, like his view of the general public, was derived from the picture of social life drawn by Charles Dickens in the mid-nineteenth century.It didn't take him long to discover that Dickens's Bob Shaye, if he existed, bore little resemblance to the medical students of today. As far as those who join the medical profession are concerned, good and bad are really a mixed bag, and there are naturally lazy and daredevils among them.They thought that studying medicine would save the most effort, and they could hang around in school for a few years, but in the end, either their pockets were exhausted, or their furious parents refused to support them, so they had no choice but to leave quietly with their tails between their legs. medical school.There are also some people who feel that the exam is really difficult to deal with, and the successive failures in the exam room make them lose all the courage in their hearts.As soon as they stepped into the daunting building of the joint curriculum committee, they were frightened out of their wits, and the contents of the books they had memorized before were all forgotten in an instant.Year after year, they have been the butt of jokes for the younger generation.In the end, some of them managed to pass the pharmacist's exam with difficulty; .Their lot is poverty and alcoholism.God knows what they will end up with in the end.But for the most part, medical students are studious boys.They came from middle-class families, and the monthly allowances their parents gave them were enough to maintain the decent lifestyle they were used to.There are many students whose parents were medical practitioners, and they already look like experts.Their career blueprint has also been planned in advance: once the qualifications are obtained, they will apply for a hospital position (maybe they will be a doctor on board and go to the Far East first), and then return to their hometown to practice medicine in partnership with their father. An spend his life.As for the few high-achieving students who are advertised as "outstanding", they receive various prizes and scholarships every year as a matter of course. At that time, they will be employed by the hospital, take up various positions, become the leading figures in the hospital, and finally open a hospital in Harley Street. A private clinic to become a specialist in a certain subject.They have achieved success and fame, come to the fore, and enjoy the glory of the world.

Among all walks of life, only the practice of medicine has no age limit. Anyone can come and try their skills, and maybe they can earn a living by relying on it.In Philip's class, for instance, there were three or four who had lost their youth.There was a man in the navy who was said to have been discharged for drunkenness. He was thirty years old, with a flushed face, an abrupt manner, and a rough voice.The other, married and with two children, had been swindled by an irresponsible lawyer who had ruined his fortune; he was stooped as if the burden of life had crushed him; Quietly burying his head in his studies, he obviously knew that at his age, it would be very difficult to memorize things by heart, and his brain was not flexible anymore.It's really pitiful to see him working so hard.

Philip was quite at home in that little room.He arranged the books neatly, and hung some of his paintings and sketches on the wall.Upstairs from him, the floor with the living room, lived a fifth-grader named Griffiths.Philip saw him seldom, partly because he spent most of his time in the hospital ward, and partly because he had gone to Oxford.All the students who have been in college in the past often get together.In the usual way of youth, they deliberately snubbed the less fortunate and made them feel inferior; the rest of the students found their air of repulsive detachment intolerable.Griffiths was tall, with thick curly red hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and bright red lips.He belongs to the kind of lucky guy who everyone likes when he sees him, he is happy and laughing all day long.He can fiddle with the piano a few times, and he can sing a few funny songs with great enthusiasm.Almost every evening, when Philip stayed in his room reading by himself, he could hear Griffiths' friends upstairs shouting, laughing, and making a scene.Philip recalled his delightful evenings in Paris: sitting in his studio with Lawson, Flanagan, and Clutton, talking about art and morals, telling of present affairs, looking forward to the future How to become famous in the world.Philip was very upset.He felt that it was easy to make a heroic gesture with the courage of the moment, but it was difficult to bear the consequences caused by it.Worst of all, he seemed bored with what he had learned so far.The questions from the anatomy model teacher gave him headaches;Anatomy is a boring subject, which makes people memorize countless rules and regulations by rote, and anatomical experiments also make him feel disgusted.What's the use of painstakingly dissecting those nerves and arteries? Wouldn't it be much easier to know the location of the nerves and arteries from the diagrams in books or the specimens in the pathology gallery.

Philip made occasional acquaintances, but only casually, because it seemed to him that he had nothing special to say in front of his companions.Sometimes he tried to express an interest in their concerns, but he felt that they thought he was giving in.Philip was not one of those people who, when he spoke on a subject that interested him, did not care whether the listener was bored or not.A classmate heard that Philip had studied painting in Paris, and thought that the two had similar interests, so he wanted to discuss art with Philip.However, Philip could not tolerate other people's different opinions.After talking a few words, he realized that what the other party said was just commonplace, so he was too lazy to speak.Philip wanted to please everyone, but he refused to approach others.He dared not show courteousness for fear of being coldly received.He was rather shy as far as his temperament was concerned, but he didn't want to be seen, so he concealed it by a frosty silence.His experience at the Royal College seems to be repeating itself now. Fortunately, the life of medical students here is quite free, and he can be alone as much as possible and have less contact with others.

It was not by Philip's own initiative that Philip grew warm to Dunsford.Dunsford was the good-looking, well-built boy he had known at the beginning of school.Dunsford loved Philip only because he was his first friend at St. Luke's.Dunsford had no friends in London, and on Saturday evenings he and Philip went to the Variety Theater, where they sat in the back of the hall, or went to the theatre, and watched it from the balcony.Dunsford was stupid by nature, but mild-tempered, never out of temper.He always said such unnecessary things, and when Philip laughed at him sometimes he just smiled--and a very sweet smile.Don't think that Philip likes to make fun of him, but he still likes him in his heart.He found Dunsford amusingly blunt, and liked his easy-going disposition: there was something charming about Dunsford that Philip was sorely lacking.

They used to go to a pastry shop in Parliament Street for tea, because Dunsford fell in love with a young waitress there.Philip could not see anything attractive in the woman--slender, with narrow hips, and a boyishly flat chest. "No one would look at her in Paris," said Philip contemptuously. "She has a pretty face!" said Dunsford. "What's the big deal about the face?" She had small, regular features, blue eyes, and a low, broad forehead (Lord Leighton, Alma Tadmer, and countless other Victorian painters would have the world believe that the low, broad forehead The forehead is a typical Greek beauty), and the hair seems to be thick and carefully combed, so that the strands of blue hair are deliberately let down on the forehead.This is called "Alexander bangs".She suffers from severe anemia, her thin lips are very pale, her delicate skin is slightly blue, not even a trace of blood is seen on her cheeks, and she has beautiful white teeth.No matter what she did, she was careful, lest she spoil those thin and white hands.When serving guests, he always has an impatient look on his face.

Dunsford is shy around women, and until now he hasn't been able to strike up a conversation with her.He begged Philip to set him up. "Just give me a heads up," he said, "and then I can handle it myself." In order not to disappoint Dunsford, Philip took the initiative to talk to her, but she insisted on not answering.She has secretly looked at them, they are just some hairy children, probably still studying.She is not interested in them.Dunsford noticed a man with sandy hair and a bushy moustache, who looked German, and who attracted her attention.Whenever he came into the shop, she was always courteous; and Philip and the others wanted something, and she had to call two or three times before she reluctantly agreed.She was icy cold and condescending to customers she had never met before; if she was talking to a friend, no matter how many times an urgent customer called her, she would ignore her.As for the female customers who came to the store for dim sum, she had a unique set of coping skills: her attitude was arrogant, but not out of proportion, which not only annoyed them, but also prevented them from catching any grounds to complain to the manager.One day Dunsford told Philip that her name was Mildred.He heard another waitress in the shop call her that.

"What a nasty name," said Philip. "What's the matter?" asked Dunsford, "I like it." "That's an awkward name." It so happened that the German guests did not come that day.Philip smiled at her when she brought her tea, and said: "Your friend isn't here today." "I don't understand what you mean," she said coldly. "I mean the gentleman with the beard. Did he leave you for someone else?" "I would advise some people to mind their own business," she retorted. Mildred left them and went.For a while, there were no other customers to serve in the store, so she sat down and read an evening newspaper that the customer forgot to take away.

"Look at how stupid you are, driving her mad." "Who told her to put on airs, I won't accept that." Philip said so, but he was really annoyed in his heart.He originally wanted to please a woman, but he was self-defeating, and instead annoyed her, which was very annoying.When he asked for the bill, he dared to talk to her again, trying to open the situation. "Shall we turn our faces and say nothing?" Philip smiled. "My job here is to serve tea, deliver snacks, and serve customers. I have nothing to say to them, and I don't want to hear what they say to me."

As soon as she put a note indicating the amount due on the table, she walked back to the table where she was sitting just now.Philip flushed with anger. "She's trying to impress you, Carey," said Dunsford as they came outside the shop. "An uneducated whore," said Philip, "and I'll never go there again." Dunsford obeyed Philip, and obediently followed him to tea elsewhere.It was not long before Dunsford found another object of pursuit.But after Philip received the cold reception from the waitress, he always had a heart.If she had treated him politely, he would never have cared about such a woman.However, she clearly hated him, which hurt his pride.Philip was indignant, and felt compelled to take revenge on her.He was angry with himself for being so petty.After three or four days in a row, he stopped going to the pastry shop in a fit of anger, but he didn't suppress the idea of ​​revenge in the end.In the end, he said to himself, forget it, it would be the easiest way to see her, because if he saw her again, he would definitely not miss her again.One afternoon Philip put forward an appointment, left Dunsford, and went straight to the pastry shop which he had sworn never to visit again, without being at all ashamed of his weakness.Philip saw the waitress as soon as he entered, and sat down at a table which belonged to her charge.He hoped that she would ask him why he hadn't come here for a week, but after she came over, she waited for him to order tea without saying anything.Just now he clearly heard her greet other customers like this:

"This is your first visit to the store!" There was nothing in her expression to suggest that they had ever known each other before.In order to test whether she had really forgotten herself, Philip asked when she came to serve tea: "Did you see my friend tonight?" "No. He hasn't been here for days." Philip wanted to use this as an excuse to have a good conversation with her, but he panicked for some reason, and was at a loss for words.The other party didn't even give him a chance, so he turned around and left.Philip waited until he asked for the bill, and then seized the opportunity of talking again. "The weather is bad enough, isn't it?" he said. It was really annoying to say it, he thought about it for a long time, and finally managed to squeeze out such a sentence.He couldn't understand how he could feel so embarrassed in front of this waitress. "I have to stay here from morning to night, and it doesn't matter to me whether the weather is good or bad." The haughtiness in her tone was especially unbearable to Philip.He really wanted to make a sarcasm at her, but when the words came to his lips, he swallowed them back. "I wish the woman would say something indecent!" Philip said angrily to himself, "then I could go to the boss and sue her and knock her out of business. It'll be right then." She's unlucky."