Vivienne and Toby, nurse and doctor in a military hospital in British North Borneo, were both victims of broken romances and unwilling to become involved again. But they seemed fated to find their names linked—even though Avril Wade did her best to come between them.
GRADE: B+
BEST QUOTES:
“People were as they were created, and it was much more important
to be likable than to be pretty.”
REVIEW:
Vivienne Carlson has decided that “having had much of the
smooth in her chosen profession a little of the rough would do her no harm,” so
she has signed up for a stint in Indonesia. She’s left her young man, Graham,
at home, and we know how that’s going to work out! He hasn’t written in six
weeks, but when the unusually thin missive finally arrives, it’s to tell her
that not only is he dumping her, he’s already married the other woman! Well, the gossip at this small outpost would
be more than she can bear in her heartbreak, so her best friend helpfully tells
everyone that Vivienne has dropped Graham for Dr. Toby Chiltern! How
embarrassing! Especially when the gossip reaches Dr. Chiltern’s ears!
When she corners Dr. Chiltern to apologize, however, he does the obvious and chivalrous (and clearly self-benefitting) thing—he offers to be her beard. “If this rumor helps you at all, why not leave it? I don’t mind in the least,” he tells her, helpfully pointing out that “we will have to act it up a bit,” so they start going out on faux dates, which they both enjoy maybe slightly—and predictably—overmuch.
Now comes the big wrench, in the form of Avril Wade. She was once Toby’s fiancée, but the night before their wedding he caught her in the arms of his would-be best man and headed for the hills of Indonesia. Avril will have her man and her revenge in the end, and is so devoted to this cause that she has become a nurse and chased Toby to the Far East. I mean, that’s dedication! When she hears that a nurse in her own hospital is about to be sent to Toby’s, she trips the woman on the stairs, causing her to break her ankle, and then wangles her way into the spot. Upon arriving, she immediately arranges a date with Toby—which rankles Vivienne to a degree that surprises no one except Vivienne herself—to announce her intentions. Toby, however, remains unimpressed with Avril, but agrees to keep their former relationship a secret from everyone, including Vivienne.
Avril, the usual foxy vixen with “sultry lips and veiled, long-lashed eyes” and a vigorous work ethic devoted solely to her own appearance, then proceeds to play the entire staff like the virtuoso she is, convincing everyone that Vivienne is a driving, mean harpy. She even reads Vivienne’s diary, discovering to her delight that Vivienne and Toby’s relationship is a sham. “It was too pathetically easy to stir up strife among innocent people and be made a heroine for doing so,” she exults. Toby, however, is immune from Avril’s machinations, and soon declares his love for Vivienne—and she, amazingly, realizes she was never in love with Graham at all, and that Toby is her true love!
The pair arrange a four-day vacation on the beach, where Toby intends to press Vivienne to marry him right away after their few weeks’ courtship: “Don’t keep me waiting long,” Toby pleads, failing to mention for what exactly? But Vivienne knows: “Women have feelings, too, Toby. I want you. We’ll just have to be patient a little while longer. Although I love you I feel I hardly know you, and I want to know you very much.”
But then pesky Graham turns up at the hotel where Vivienne is waiting for Toby to join her later that day, as they are travelling separately. Graham wants to apologize in person for destroying Vivienne’s hopes and dreams, and just happens to be in the neighborhood. Though annoyed by Graham’s egotism, she agrees to meet with him. “With luck she could get Graham out of the say, assured of her present feelings and future happiness, and then proceed to welcome Toby with all her hungry heart and its yearnings,” because of course she is not going to tell Toby that she is meeting Graham.
On his side of things, Toby is blackmailed by Avril into driving her to the same town he is headed to on his vacation, as she casually mentions that she still has Toby’s old love letters, and it would be such a shame if anyone else should see them. “He would have liked to tell Viv all about Avril and her threats, but she might wonder why the confidence had not been made sooner”—um, yeah, and she isn’t the only one—so he continues the lie by omission with the excuse, “He loved Vivienne dearly and she must be protected from his ex-fiancée at any cost.”
But what a cost! Toby and Avril show up at Vivenne’s hotel just as Graham is pecking her on the cheek in goodbye. She is compelled to introduce everyone, and now hypocritical Toby is pissy that Vivienne hadn’t mentioned the meeting. “He became furious and miserable by turns. Didn’t she know her own mind, then? I love you one minute and kissing somebody else the next.” So Toby spends most of his vacation ignoring Vivienne and frolicking with Avril on the beach, “subjecting her to humiliation never dreamed of by Graham, who had at least made a clean, sharp thrust in ending their fare.” Back at the hospital, Toby continues to play up to Avril. “It was all rather sickening. Not once had he approached her to try to patch up” their relationship, mopes Vivienne back at the ranch.
Of course there’s the usual crisis that brings the pair together again, Vivienne being amazingly generous and forgiving of the really horrible behavior of her boyfriend. But overall this is an entertaining book with some very pretty writing ("Flies merrily buzzed in, met the blast of DDT in the antiseptic atmosphere and drunkenly barged out again”), interesting characters (as usual, the villainess Avril is the most intriguing person in the book), and minimal racism (though I will be making the usual donation on behalf of the White Doctor Foundation). You could certainly do a lot worse than to spend some time in Hospital of Bamboo.
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