"Alvred," who was a French-Swiss, and spoke more languages than I can well remember, waited upon us at table. We were just finishing an excellent five-course dinner with a tiny glass of _coin-treau_, when the sound of a motor-car stopping at the door aroused us from our dream of heavenly isolation.
As we stepped into the hall, the door opened, and in walked the colonel, the senior major and the quartermaster, who had followed us from Boulogne by road.
"Well, how do you like our new hospital?" the colonel demanded with a satisfied smile.
"We love it," Burnham exclaimed. "It is weird, romantic and altogether _comme il faut_."
I suggested that a liqueur and a cigar might not be unacceptable after their long drive. The colonel smiled appreciatively as he replied:
"We _are_ a bit chilly after our journey; I think a little drink will do us good. What do you say, Major Baldwin?" This question was addressed to the senior major, who, with the others, had now entered our dining room.
The artistic surroundings drove the major into poetry at once. He exclaimed:
"'Ah! my beloved, fill the cup that clears To-day of past regrets and future fears.'"
"Splendid!" cried Burnham enthusiastically. "Now, let's have 'Gunga Din'--you do it so well! How does it go? 'You're a better drink than I am, Gordon Gin!'"
"No, no!" said the major deprecatingly. "You mustn't abuse Kipling--it's too early in the evening."
Whether the major intended abusing that famous author at a later hour, or merely reciting from him, we didn't enquire. We talked until late, formulating our plans for the morrow and for many days to come. We made a tour of inspection about the building. The colonel unfolded his plans as we walked along the halls.
"This suite," he said, as we came to the end of the hall, "will make a splendid pair of operating rooms, an anæsthetic and a sterilising room. The fifth will do for a dressing room for the surgeons, and in the sixth Reggy will have full sway--that will be his eye and ear reformatory. On the left we'll install our X-ray plant, so that all surgical work may be done in this one wing."
"What about the hotel furnishings," I enquired, "are they to remain in places?"
"Everything must go, except what is absolutely necessary to the comfort or care of patients," he replied. "It seems a pity, but we are here not only to cure patients, but to protect the Government from needless expense. In the morning set the men to work dismantling the entire building."