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128 her that I must write fully both to her doctor and to her husband. She replied, as before, that she had no doctor, and that it seemed a pity to worry a strange medical man with details about a patient who was not under his care. As to her husband, she asked if I had told her all and if there would be anything in my letter to him that I had not communicated to her. I said that she knew the utmost I had to tell. "In that case," she replied, "a note from you is unnecessary." I said, "Of course, your husband will come up to London?"

To which she remarked, "I cannot see the need. He has his own affairs to attend to. Why should any fuss be made? The operation concerns no one but myself."

I asked her then what relative or friend would look after her during the operation. She said, "No one. I have no relatives I care about; and as to friends, I do not propose to make my operation a subject for gossip." I explained to her that under such circumstances no surgeon would undertake the operation. It was a hazardous measure, and it was essential that she should have someone near her during a period of such anxiety. She finally agreed to ask an elderly lady—a remote connexion of hers—to be with her during her stay in the nursing home.