It had been like that today. It had started at four o'clock in the morning and they had been delivering babies ever since. The midwives and nurses did most of the work, but when they were overstretched Maisie and Rachel had to leave their pens and ledgers and scurry around with towels and blankets.
By seven o'clock, however, it was all over, and they were enjoying a cup of tea in Maisie's office with Rachel's lover, Maisie's brother Dan, when Hugh Pilaster came in. "I bring very bad news, I'm afraid," he said right away.
Maisie was pouring tea but his tone of voice shocked her and she stopped. Looking hard at his face she saw that he was grief-stricken, and she thought someone must have died. "Hugh, what has happened?"
"I think you keep all the hospital's money in an account at my bank, don't you?"
If it was only money, Maisie thought, the news could not be that bad.
Rachel answered Hugh's question. "Yes. My father handles the money, but he has kept his own private account with you ever since he became the bank's lawyer, and I suppose he found it convenient to do the same with the hospital's account."
"And he invested your money in Cordova bonds."
"Did he?"
Maisie said: "What's wrong, Hugh? For goodness' sake tell us!"
"The bank has failed."
Maisie's eyes filled with tears, not for herself but for him. "Oh, Hugh!" she cried. She knew how much he was hurting. For him this was almost like the death of a loved one, for he had invested all his hopes and dreams in the bank. She wished she could take some of the pain into herself, to ease his suffering.
Dan said: "Good God. There will be a panic."
"All your money has gone," Hugh said. "You'll probably have to close the hospital. I can't tell you how sorry I am."
Rachel was white with shock. "That's not possible!" she said. "How can our money be gone?"
Dan answered her. "The bank can't pay its debts," he said bitterly. "That's what bankruptcy means, it means you owe people money and you can't pay them."
In a flash of recollection Maisie saw her father, a quarter of a century earlier looking much as Dan did today, saying exactly the same thing about bankruptcy. Dan had spent much of his life trying to protect ordinary people from the effects of these financial crises--but so far he had achieved nothing. "Perhaps now they'll pass your Banking Bill," she said to him.
Rachel said to Hugh: "But what have you done with our money?"
