Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Caring on the
Frontline during
COVID-19
Contributions from Rapid Qualitative Research
Editors
Cecilia Vindrola-Padros Ginger A. Johnson
Department of Targeted Intervention UNICEF
University College London New York, NY, USA
London, UK
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022
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Contents
v
vi Contents
Index307
Notes on Contributors
ix
x Notes on Contributors
AIDS and epidemics; patient and public involvement; gender and health
inequalities in several countries (Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Colombia,
India, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, and the UK).
Cassandra Dorasamy is an MA student in the Development Studies
Programme at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS University),
where she is also a tutor for the Critical Thinking and Sociology of Health
and Illness courses. She completed undergraduate studies from the
University of KwaZulu Natal in Community Development and Legal
Studies. Her MA research focuses on the governance of Muslim marriages
in South Africa and looks at issues of legal pluralism, law reform and gen-
der and multiculturalism through the personal experiences of women and
practitioners.
Itzel Eguiluz holds a PhD in International Migrations from UCM and
an MSc from the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico (INSP).
She works with qualitative methods researching issues about migration
and global health. As a consultant, she worked for the UNHCR, UNFPA,
and Partners in Health, among others. Also, she is a professor at the TEC
CCM, UNAM and the Instituto Mora and an invited professor at
Washington University.
Sarah Fitzgerald earned her Bachelor of Physiotherapy with Dean’s
Honours (2009) from La Trobe University, Bendigo, Australia. She prac-
ticed as a physiotherapist for over ten years in Australia, the United
Kingdom and New Zealand with a keen interest in intensive care rehabili-
tation and cardiorespiratory physiotherapy. She is now enrolled in the
Doctor of Medicine and Surgery (MChD) degree at the Australian
National University, Canberra, Australia, as a second-year student.
Andrea Freidus is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of
North Carolina Charlotte in the Department of Anthropology. She is an
applied medical anthropologist who has worked on a variety of research
topics including orphan care in Malawi, volunteer tourism, and health
disparities and food insecurity in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Paola Galbany-Estragués is a nurse and anthropologist with a PhD in
nursing science. She is Professor at Universitat de Vic-Universitat Central
de Catalunya. She is a member of AFIN at Universitat Autonoma de
Barcelona and the group Methodologies, Methods, Models and Health
and Social Outcomes, UVic-UCC.
Notes on Contributors xiii
the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social. She is Director of the Technical
Section of Mental Health of the Mexican Society of Public Health and has
been an expert consultant for international organizations on various health
issues. Her areas of interest in qualitative research are mental health and
public health policies.
Sandra Staudacher is a medical anthropologist and lawyer with expertise
in social and cultural aspects of ageing, health and care. Since 2018 she
holds a postdoctoral position at the Institute of Nursing Science (INS),
Department of Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine, University of
Basel. She is interested in analysing person-centred care, quality of life,
and interprofessionality in nursing homes.
Martí Subías is Registered Mental Health Nurse at Sant James of God
Hospital in Sant Boi, Barcelona. He is working as a case manager in men-
tal health. He is a PhD candidate, holds a master’s degree in Personality,
Eating and Emotional disorders by the University of Valencia, and is
Associate Professor on the Public, Mental and Pediatric Health Department
at the University of Barcelona.
Ashwin Swaminathan is a physician and infectious diseases specialist. In
addition to his clinical work, he has an interest in environmental epidemi-
ology and health care facility systems. He is also Clinical Director of
General Medicine at Canberra Hospital and senior lecturer at Australian
National University Medical School.
Anahi Sy has a degree in Anthropology, PhD, Natural Sciences from
Universidad Nacional de La Plata. She is a senior researcher from National
Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET, Argentina)
and a graduate and postgraduate lecturer at the Instituto de Salud
Colectiva, Universidad Nacional de Lanús. She is an associate editor of the
scientific journal Salud Colectiva and has worked on issues of anthropol-
ogy and intercultural health, mental health and hospital institutions, from
an ethnographic and ethno-epidemiological perspective. She has pub-
lished several scientific works with national and international refereeing,
among the most outstanding ones: Socio/Ethno-epidemiologies: propos-
als and possibilities from the Latin American production. Health Sociology
Review, 26:3, 2017 and the book Historias Locas, Ed. Teseo, Buenos
Aires, Argentina (2020).
xxii Notes on Contributors
same time, she is a primary care nurse. She is trained in qualitative research
and her topics of interest are good clinical practice in primary care and in
teaching in higher education. She belongs to the Greps (Health Education
Group) of the University of Lleida and collaborates with the AFIN group
of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Inayah Uddin has completed a BSc in Psychology and an MSc in Health
Psychology at UCL. Her research interests include research in healthcare
organizations and delivery of medical services in LMICs using qualitative
approaches.
Echezona Udokanma is a global health researcher with an interest in
health promotion, development, policy analysis, health system strengthen-
ing, and management. He has a background in Health Education and as
an African Graduate Scholar; he obtained an MSc in Global Health and
Development at the University College London. He has gained experi-
ence in research, policy analysis, and business management. He is a pub-
lished researcher with skills in data analysis, systemic, and analytical
reasoning, programme design, implementation and evaluation, and busi-
ness management. He hopes to synergize his research and management
skills in strengthening Nigeria’s health system.
Sam Vanderslott is a health sociologist at the Oxford Martin School and
Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford working on health,
society, and policy topics. She draws on perspectives from sociology, his-
tory, global public health, and science and technology studies (STS) and
has published in journals including Social Science and Medicine, Clinical
Infectious Diseases, Nature and Culture, and Human Development and
Capabilities.
Eva Vázquez-Segura (she) is a nursing graduate and a specialist in
Obstetric and Gynecological Nursing (Midwife). She’s been working as a
community midwife for the last 23 years, the last 18 years at Institut Català
de la Salut where she also works at Trànsit (a transgender healthcare ser-
vice). She’s got an MA in Women’s, Gender and Citizenship Studies and
is a PhD student of Gender Studies at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
doing her research on reproduction and non-binary people. She’s also
Assistant Professor of Sexual and Reproductive Health Nursing at
Universitat de Barcelona.
xxiv Notes on Contributors
xxv
xxvi List of Figures
Table 2.1 Existing guidelines for rapid REC set up during health
emergencies21
Table 2.2 Challenges and suggested solutions by researchers for
overcoming REC barriers 26
Table 2.3 Recommendations for researchers in navigating REC review
processes for rapid qualitative research 31
Table 9.1 Characteristics of study participants 184
xxvii
CHAPTER 1
C. Vindrola-Padros (*)
Department of Targeted Intervention, University College London, London, UK
e-mail: c.vindrola@ucl.ac.uk
G. A. Johnson
UNICEF, New York, NY, USA
e-mail: gijohnson@unicef.org
with the general public (e.g. heated arguments and physical aggression)
due to fears that they would be ‘carriers of the virus.’ Many were physically
removed from public areas and even evicted from their homes. As personal
protective equipment (PPE) shortages were denounced around the globe,
HCWs feared they had become disposable and many called on their gov-
ernments to change the course of action, improving preventive measures
and investing in healthcare systems’ most precious resource—its workforce.
In many ways, the COVID-19 pandemic illuminated fractures of
healthcare systems around the world, perhaps especially those located in
the global North once considered to be among the best examples of func-
tioning healthcare. As governments scrambled to contain and deal with
the impact of this rapidly spreading virus, the effects of decades of budget
cuts, understaffing, fragmentation and inequalities in access to care could
no longer be denied.
This book is a testament to the experiences of frontline healthcare
workers delivering care during the COVID-19 pandemic. It paints a
global picture of the uncertainty, struggle, fears and hopes of the millions
of doctors, nurses, community health workers, therapists, cleaners, porters
and managers who worked tirelessly to respond to the demands created by
the virus. These experiences are understood and analysed in relation to
global trends, epidemiological ‘waves’ and local contextual factors. The
book maps these experiences across different stages of the pandemic,
including the anticipation and preparation for the impact of the virus while
looking afar at the damage it had produced in other countries, to planning
for the long-term consequences the pandemic had on populations and
healthcare systems—and the stark realisation that COVID-19 ‘is not
going away.’
The book is an unusual edited volume in the sense that the content was
created by a global network of research teams composed mainly of social
scientists who worked collaboratively since the early stages of the pan-
demic to share study protocols, materials, problems and solutions. The
network was developed by the Rapid Research Evaluation and Appraisal
Lab (RREAL), with headquarters in University College London in the
United Kingdom (UK). The UK team was the first team to design and
implement a rapid appraisal on the experiences of healthcare workers
delivering care during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. This
team then began to contact research teams in other areas of the world,
asking them if they wanted to ‘replicate’ the study (with modifications
required for the local context) and join a global network of teams carrying
1 CARING ON THE FRONTLINE: AN INTRODUCTION 3
out a series of ‘mirror studies.’ The network grew rapidly and, at one
point, teams from 22 countries were replicating at least one aspect of the
study. The network met regularly to discuss emerging findings from the
study and paint a global picture of the experiences of healthcare workers.
This book is an attempt to bring this extensive knowledge base together,
reflecting on the similarities and differences of the experiences of health-
care workers at a global scale.
The authors represented within this book felt that the challenges posed
by a pandemic which affected HCWs and systems of care in every country
in the world, demanded a cross-cultural representation of shared vulnera-
bility and responsibilities. The book can be seen as a journey into the lives
of healthcare workers that were shaped by their governments’ response to
the pandemic through the development of public policies and guidelines,
changes in their clinical roles and care delivery practices, and the emo-
tional and psychological impact of working long hours and encountering
death on a daily basis. The journey is shaped by the exacerbation of pre-
existing inequalities in access to care in the case of patients, but also in
relation to the working conditions of staff, where gender, social class and
ethnicity interlaced to increase the risk of infection and death in HCW
populations of lower socio-economic status and from minority eth-
nic groups.
The book is also a journey into the lives of the research teams that made
this global network possible, as it reflects on the challenges of carrying out
qualitative research in the context of a pandemic. These research teams
adopted approaches from the field of rapid qualitative research that allowed
them to quickly set up studies, analyse data during successive waves of data
collection and share emerging findings with relevant stakeholders (so that
findings could be used to inform response efforts). These journeys were
shaped by delays generated by ethics review committees, restrictions that
prevented access to medical facilities and staff, limited budgets for research
and the pressures researchers were facing in their own lives (uncertainty,
fears, childcare issues, illness and bereavement).
In the following pages, this introductory chapter sets the scene that
framed the development of this book. It provides a close look at the global
context of care delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing lessons
from previous epidemics. It then describes how our research sought to
document these experiences, teasing out the key messages for public
health authorities, UN and non-governmental organisations, think tanks
and other research teams we collaborated with to make sure the research
4 C. VINDROLA-PADROS AND G. A. JOHNSON
findings were actively used. The chapter ends with an overview of the
book by describing the content of chapters that cover public policy, men-
tal health and wellbeing, feeling protected and protecting others, resource
scarcity, end of life, clinical uncertainty, inequalities, religious interpreta-
tions of illness and care, the knock-on effects on other conditions and
areas of healthcare systems, and the long-term consequences of the
pandemic.
and the US, revealed a pooled prevalence rate of 6.3% which the authors
characterised as placing HCWs “particularly at risk” (Lietz et al. 2016).
For all recorded cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) since the virus was
first identified in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now known as the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), HCW infections have com-
prised between 2 and 100% of EVD cases (Selvaraj et al. 2018). Up to
two-thirds of reported EVD infections among an ‘already scarce health
workforce’ in West Africa during the 2014–2016 outbreak were fatal. The
World Health Organisation’s (WHO) analysis of the West African out-
break concluded that “health workers are between 21 and 32 times more
likely to be infected with Ebola than people in the general adult popula-
tion” (WHO 2015).
What we can discern from these past experiences is that the challenges
posed to HCWs providing care during an infectious epidemic increase
significantly under certain social and biological conditions:
participants during early stages of the pandemic and then leaving the net-
work due to competing priorities, lack of funding and limited capacity.
All of these teams became important components of the RREAL
COVID-19 Global Network. The network met on a regular basis, discuss-
ing issues with study set-up and implementation as well as sharing emerg-
ing findings as these became available. The network facilitated the rapid
sharing of learning as strategies that had been effective for rapid studies in
some areas of the world could be adapted and implemented in others. The
network also generated a sense of community as, despite the regional dif-
ferences, we all had a shared purpose. The last aim of the network was to
paint a global picture of the experiences of HCWs delivering care during
the COVID-19 pandemic, an aim that has materialised with the publica-
tion of this book.
remain in the timely set-up of studies. The chapter focuses on the experi-
ences of the researchers who tried to get these studies quickly off the
ground so the pandemic and its impact on the healthcare workforce could
be tracked on a real-time basis. This timeliness was key to ensure the
research findings could be used to inform changes in policy and practice.
The chapter reflects on the unsuitability of current processes for the review
and approval of qualitative studies and proposes changes that need to be
made for research carried out in the context of global pandemics.
Chapter 3 provides an analysis of how the political motives of individual
governments influenced the policy and guidance that shaped healthcare
organisation and delivery throughout the pandemic. The chapter includes
a comparison between countries’ political approaches and leadership, and
the levels of guidance provided to healthcare workers on the delivery of
care and use of resources. Alterations in laws and guidelines are discussed
in relation to the individual trajectories of the pandemic within the UK,
Italy, Spain, South Africa, Mexico and Switzerland. The accounts of
healthcare workers and their experiences delivering care under these new
guidelines and whether they helped or hindered their ability to provide
care are explored to analyse each country’s response and the practicalities
of the guidance they provided.
Chapter 4 explores one of the most contentious and politically charged
issues of the COVID-19 pandemic: the proper stock, distribution and use
of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers and the
effects on the delivery of care. The chapter brings together findings from
research conducted in Spain, UK, India, Argentina, Ecuador, the US,
Senegal, Gambia and Burkina Faso, and examines how feelings of safety
and protection shaped HCWs’ experiences of delivering care during the
pandemic. The chapter engages with issues of PPE shortage, its manage-
ment at a national policy level and HCWs’ response to this at an individual
level (e.g. involving the improvisation of their own equipment, protest
and even refusal to deliver care).
Chapter 5 analyses the experiences of healthcare workers (HCWs)
when dealing with ‘the unknown’ during the COVID-19 pandemic in
Chile, Brazil and Argentina. The authors argue that, in these countries,
the uncertainties caused by the pandemic converged with previous social,
political and economic incertitude in the region. The authors describe the
ways in which uncertainty was exacerbated by constantly changing proto-
cols and norms, where HCWs had to assume different roles and responsi-
bilities in the workplace.
12 C. VINDROLA-PADROS AND G. A. JOHNSON
out changes to their workplaces as they prepared for a pandemic that did
not arrive. The authors explore the feelings of HCWs who remained in a
state of anticipation and waiting and use these experiences to discuss the
implications of a workforce that needs to be in a perpetual state of
readiness.
Chapter 10 provides a closer look at testing for COVID-19, using the
experience of South Africa as a case study. In this chapter, the authors
approach testing as a complex process shaped by socio-cultural, economic
and political factors and highlight the symbolic nature of testing at a
national scale (with a focus on the government’s approach to testing), and
at an individual level (making the virus visible). Notions of testing as neu-
tral are questioned through the use of empirical data which sheds light on
how tests during the pandemic were imbued with value and power.
Chapter 11 focuses on the role of HCWs at patients’ end of life. The
end of life for hospitalised patients, notifying families after a COVID-19
death, and management of the deceased patient are only some of the situ-
ations related to the end of life in this unknown new reality in the
COVID-19 era. The chapter engages with questions such as: How does
this new reality modify communication with patients and families? What
are the tools and strategies that healthcare workers are creating and imple-
menting for this new and challenging reality? The chapter draws from
experiences from HCWs and models for the delivery of end-of-life care in
Mexico, the UK, Ireland and the US.
Chapter 12 looks at how various countries have refocused their medical
systems to cope with the anticipated surge of COVID-19 cases. Using a
range of case study examples, from South Africa, Argentina and Ireland,
this chapter argues that access to and the provision of routine and essential
(non-COVID) services have ‘fallen like a stack of dominos’ as a result of
preparation for and treatment of COVID-19 patients. This has affected a
wide range of services such as primary and preventative care where mater-
nal, infant and childcare have been affected, as well as routine immunisa-
tion and screening for infectious and non-communicable diseases.
Furthermore, secondary and tertiary care has also been compromised with
both the provision of regular treatments suspended, and the quality of
clinic and hospital care compromised. Whilst healthcare has undoubtedly
been affected across the board, the significant inequities in healthcare
within the case study countries mean that much of the population that
needs and requires uninterrupted healthcare has indeed suffered the most.
14 C. VINDROLA-PADROS AND G. A. JOHNSON
The concluding chapter (Chap. 13) discusses the main themes from the
chapters in the book and uses these findings to develop a future research
and practice agenda. It outlines the areas that we need to develop to make
sure we can address the social, political and economic impacts of
COVID-19 in addition to informing preparedness strategies for future
pandemics.
References
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Organization 54 (1): 42–51.
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Deaths Due to COVID-19: A Survey from 37 Nations and a Call for WHO to
Post National Data on Their Website. International Journal of Infectious
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Allegranzi. 2018. Infection Rates and Risk Factors for Infection Among Health
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1 CARING ON THE FRONTLINE: AN INTRODUCTION 15
Introduction
During any public health emergency, ethics committees must be rigorous,
responsive, and timely for successful review of research proposals. This
chapter explores the guidance for rapid research in emergency contexts—
in this instance, the COVID-19 pandemic—and the scrutiny qualitative
researchers encountered when seeking ethics approval from a Research
Ethics Committee (REC). In order to frame our discussion about the
principles and purpose of RECs, we first review the literature and
guidelines for conducting ethical reviews during public health
S. Cooper (*)
Department of Applied Health Research, University College London, London, UK
e-mail: silvie.cooper@ucl.ac.uk
S. M. Symmons
Institute of Epidemiology and Healthcare, University College London,
London, UK
e-mail: sofia.symmons.19@alumni.ucl.ac.uk
Principles of RECs
Ethics is an intrinsic part of research. The role of a REC is to review
research proposals to conform with national and international ethical
guidelines. Review of research by a REC is required for all research involv-
ing human participants (to varying extents) and must be approved before
key stages (data collection for instance) can commence. RECs hold
researchers accountable to protecting participants in research and to con-
sider the risks and benefits to the participants and community in question.
Ethical principles in health research are well known and date back to
the Nuremberg Code in the 1940s, which have been refined and built
upon over time. Beauchamp and Childress (1979) outline four main prin-
ciples in health research that researchers must strive to uphold: autonomy,
beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. These principles are in place to
ensure research is conducted equitably. RECs have been established inter-
nationally to hold researchers accountable to these principles, which have
since been embedded in legislation and regulations for research. RECs
review all aspects of research proposals, from the aims, methodologies,
consent process, and dissemination of findings. They have a responsibility
to objectively ensure ethical principles for the management and conduct of
research are considered and upheld.
Tavia slept her usually sweet, sound sleep that night, despite the
strange surroundings of the hotel and the happenings of a busy day;
but Dorothy lay for a long time, unable to close her eyes.
In the morning, however, she was as deep in slumber as ever her
chum was when a knock came on the door of their anteroom. Both
girls sat up and said in chorus:
“Who’s there?”
“It’s jes’ me, Missy,” said the soft voice of the colored maid. “Did
one o’ youse young ladies lost somethin’?”
“Oh, mercy me, yes!” shouted Tavia, jumping completely out of her
bed and running toward the door.
“Nonsense, Tavia!” admonished Dorothy, likewise hopping out of
bed. “She can’t have found your money.”
“Oh! what is it, please?” asked Tavia, opening the door just a trifle.
“Has you lost somethin’?” repeated the colored girl.
“I lost my handbag in a store yesterday,” said Tavia.
“Das it, Missy,” chuckled the maid. “De clark, he axed me to ax yo’
’bout it. It’s done come back.”
“What’s come back?” demanded Dorothy, likewise appearing at
the door and in the same dishabille as her friend.
“De bag. De clark tol’ me to tell yo’ ladies dat all de money is safe
in it, too. Now yo’ kin go back to sleep again. He’s done got de bag
in he’s safe;” and the girl went away chuckling.
Tavia fell up against the door and stared at Dorothy.
“Oh, Doro! Can it be?” she panted.
“Oh, Tavia! What luck!”
“There’s the telephone! I’m going to call up the office,” and Tavia
darted for the instrument on the wall.
But there was something the matter with the wires; that was why
the clerk had sent the maid to the room.
“Then I’m going to dress and go right down and see about it,”
Tavia said.
“But it’s only six o’clock,” yawned Dorothy. “The maid was right.
We should go back to bed.”
Her friend scorned the suggestion and she fairly “hopped” into her
clothes.
“Be sure and powder your nose, dear,” laughed Dorothy. “But I am
glad for you, Tavia.”
“Bother my nose!” responded her friend, running out of her room
and into the corridor.
She whisked back again before Dorothy was more than half
dressed with the precious bag in her hands.
“Oh, it is! it is!” she cried, whirling about Dorothy’s room and her
own and the bath and anteroom, in a dervish dance of joy. “Doro!
Doro! I’m saved!”
“I don’t know whether you are saved or not, dear. But you plainly
are delighted.”
“Every penny safe.”
“Are you sure?”
“Oh, yes. I counted. I had to sign a receipt for the clerk, too. He is
the dearest man.”
“Well, dear, I hope this will be a lesson to you,” Dorothy said.
“It will be!” declared the excited Tavia. “Do you know what I am
going to do?”
“Spend your money more recklessly than ever, I suppose,” sighed
her friend.
“Say! seems to me you’re awfully glum this morning. You’re not
nice about my good luck—not a bit,” and Tavia stared at her in
puzzlement.
“Of course I’m delighted that you should recover your bag,”
Dorothy hastened to say. “How did it come back?”
“Why, the clerk gave it to me, I tell you.”
“What clerk? The one at the silk counter?”
“Goodness! The hotel clerk downstairs.”
“But how did he come by it?”
Tavia slowly sat down and blinked. “Why—why,” she said, “I didn’t
even think to ask him.”
“Well, Tavia!” exclaimed Dorothy, rather aghast at this admission of
her flyaway friend.
“I do seem to have been awfully thoughtless again,” admitted
Tavia, slowly. “I thanked him—the clerk, I mean! Oh, I did! I could
have kissed him!”
“Tavia!”
“I could; but I didn’t,” said the wicked Tavia, her eyes sparkling
once more. “But I never thought to ask how he came by it. Maybe
some poor person found it and should be rewarded. Should I give a
tithe of it, Doro, as a reward, as we give a tithe to the church? Let’s
see! I had just eighty-nine dollars and thirty-seven cents, and an old
copper penny for a pocket-piece. One-tenth of that would be——”
“Do be sensible!” exclaimed Dorothy, rather tartly for her. “You
might at least have asked how the bag was sent here—whether by
the store itself, or by some employee, or brought by some outside
person.”
“Goodness! if it were your money would you have been so
curious?” demanded Tavia. “I don’t believe it. You would have been
just as excited as I was.”
“Perhaps,” admitted Dorothy, after a moment. “Anyway, I’m glad
you have it back, dear.”
“And do you know what I am going to do? I am going to take that
old man’s advice.”
“What old man, Tavia?”
“That Mr. Schuman—the head of the big store. I am going to go
out right after breakfast and buy me a dog chain and chain that bag
to my wrist.”
Dorothy laughed at this—yet she did not laugh happily. There was
something wrong with her, and as soon as Tavia began to quiet
down a bit she noticed it again.
“Doro,” she exclaimed, “I do believe something has happened to
you!”
“What something?”
“I don’t know. But you are not—not happy. What is it?”
“Hungry,” said Dorothy, shortly. “Do stop primping now and come
on down to breakfast.”
“Well, you must be savagely hungry then, if it makes you like this,”
grumbled Tavia. “And it is an hour before our usual breakfast time.”
They went down in the elevator to the lower floor, Tavia carrying
the precious bag. She would not trust it out of her sight again, she
said, as long as a penny was left in it.
She attempted to go over to the clerk’s desk at the far side of the
lobby to ask for the details of the recovery of her bag; but there were
several men at the desk and Dorothy stopped her.
“Wait until he is more at leisure,” she advised Tavia. “And until
there are not so many men about.”
“Oh, nonsense!” ejaculated Tavia, but she turned to follow Dorothy.
Then she added: “Ah, there is one you won’t mind speaking to——”
“Where?” cried Dorothy, stopping instantly.
“Going into the dining-room,” said Tavia.
Dorothy then saw the gray back of Garford Knapp ahead of them.
She turned swiftly for the exit of the hotel.
“Come!” she said, “let’s get a breath of air before breakfast. It—it
will give us an appetite!” And she fairly dragged Tavia to the
sidewalk.
“Well, I declare to goodness!” volleyed Tavia, staring at her. “And
just now you were as hungry as a bear. And you still seem to have a
bear’s nature. How rough! Don’t you want to see that young man?”
“Never!” snapped Dorothy, and started straight along toward the
Hudson River.
Tavia was for the moment silenced. But after a bit she asked slyly:
“You’re not really going to walk clear home, are you, dear? North
Birchland is a long, long walk—and the river intervenes.”
Dorothy had to laugh. But her face almost immediately fell into
very serious lines. Tavia, for once, considered her chum’s feelings.
She said nothing regarding Garry Knapp.
“Well,” she murmured. “I need no appetite—no more than I have.
Aren’t you going to eat at all this morning, Dorothy?”
“Here is a restaurant; let us go in,” said her friend promptly.
They did so, and Dorothy lingered over the meal (which was
nowhere as good as that they would have secured at the Fanuel)
until she was positive that Mr. Knapp must have finished his own
breakfast and left the hotel.
In fact, they saw him run out and catch a car in front of the hotel
entrance while they were still some rods from the door. Dorothy at
once became brisker of movement, hurrying Tavia along.
“We must really shop to-day,” she said with decision. “Not merely
look and window-shop.”
“Surely,” agreed Tavia.
“And we’ll not come back to luncheon—it takes too much time,”
Dorothy went on, as they hurried into the elevator. “Perhaps we can
get tickets for that nice play Ned and Nat saw when they were down
here last time. Then, if we do, we will stay uptown for dinner——”
“Mercy! All that time in the same clothes and without the
prescribed ‘relax’?” groaned Tavia. “We’ll look as though we had
been ground between the upper and the nether millstone.”
“Well——”
They had reached their rooms. Tavia turned upon her and
suddenly seized Dorothy by both shoulders, looking accusingly into
her friend’s eyes.
“I know what you are up to. You are running away from that man.”
“Oh! What——”
“Never mind trying to dodge the issue,” said Tavia, sternly. “That
Garry Knapp. And it seems he must be a pretty nappy sort, sure
enough. He probably knew that girl and was ashamed to have us
see him speaking to one so shabby. Now! what do you care what he
does?”
“I don’t,” denied Dorothy, hotly. “I’m only ashamed that we have
been seen with him. And it is my fault.”
“I’d like to know why?”
“It was unnecessary for us to have become so friendly with him
just because he did us a favor.”
“Yes—but——”
“It was I. I did it,” said Dorothy, almost in tears. “We should never
allow ourselves to become acquainted with strangers in any such
way. Now you see what it means, Tavia. It is not your fault—it is
mine. But it should teach you a lesson as well as me.”
“Goodness!” said the startled Tavia. “I don’t see that it is anything
very terrible. The fellow is really nothing to us.”
“But people having seen us with him—and then seeing him with
that common-acting girl——”
“Pooh! what do we care?” repeated Tavia. “Garry Knapp is nothing
to us, and never would be.”
Dorothy said not another word, but turned quickly away from her
friend. She was very quiet while they made ready for their shopping
trip, and Tavia could not arouse her.
Careless and unobservant as Tavia was, anything seriously the
matter with her chum always influenced her. She gradually
“simmered down” herself, and when they started forth from their
rooms both girls were morose.
As they passed through the lobby a bellhop was called to the
desk, and then he charged after the two girls.
“Please, Miss! Which is Miss Dale?” he asked, looking at the letter
in his hand.
Dorothy held out her hand and took it. It was written on the hotel
stationery, and the handwriting was strange to her. She tore it open
at once. She read the line or two of the note, and then stopped,
stunned.
“What is it?” asked Tavia, wonderingly.
Dorothy handed her the note. It was signed “G. Knapp” and read
as follows:
“Why, what under the sun! How did he come to know about it?”
demanded Tavia. “Goodness!”
“He—he maybe—had something to do with recovering it for you,”
Dorothy said faintly. Yet in her heart she knew that it was hope that
suggested the idea, not reason.
“Well, I am going to find out right now,” declared Tavia Travers,
and she marched back to the clerk’s desk before Dorothy could
object, had she desired to.
“This note to my friend is from Mr. Knapp, who is stopping here,”
Tavia said to the young man behind the counter. “Did he have
anything to do with getting back my bag?”
“I know nothing about your bag, Miss,” said the clerk. “I was not on
duty, I presume, when it was handed in. You are Miss——”
“Travers.”
The clerk went to the safe and found a memorandum, which he
read and then returned to the desk.
“Your supposition is correct, Miss Travers. Mr. Knapp handed in
the handbag and took a receipt for it.”
“When did he do that?” asked Tavia, quickly, almost overpowered
with amazement.
“Some time during the night. Before I came on duty at seven
o’clock.”
“Well! isn’t that the strangest thing?” Tavia said to Dorothy, when
she rejoined her friend at the hotel entrance after thanking the clerk.
“How ever could he have got it in the night?” murmured Dorothy.
“Say! he’s all right—Garry Knapp is!” Tavia cried, shaking the bag
to which she now clung so tightly, and almost on the verge of doing a
few “steps of delight” on the public thoroughfare. “I could hug him!”
“It—it is very strange,” murmured Dorothy, for she was still very
much disturbed in her mind.
“It’s particularly jolly,” said Tavia. “And I am going to—well, thank
him, at least,” as she saw her friend start and glance at her
admonishingly, “just the very first chance I get. But I ought to hug
him! He deserves some reward. You said yourself that perhaps I
should reward the finder.”
“Mr. Knapp could not possibly have been the finder. The bag was
merely returned through him.” Dorothy spoke positively.
“Don’t care. I must be grateful to somebody,” wailed Tavia. “Don’t
nip my finer feelings in the bud. Your name should be Frost—
Mademoiselle Jacquesette Frost! You’re always nipping me.”
Dorothy, however, remained grave. She plainly saw that this
incident foretold complications. She had made up her mind that she
and Tavia would have nothing more to do with the Westerner, Garry
Knapp; and now her friend would insist on thanking him—of course,
she must if only for politeness’ sake—and any further intercourse
with Mr. Knapp would make the situation all the more difficult.
She wished with all her heart that their shopping was over, and
then she could insist upon taking the train immediately out of New
York, even if she had to sink to the abhorred subterfuge of playing ill,
and so frightening Tavia.
She wished they might move to some other hotel; but if they did
that an explanation must be made to Aunt Winnie as well as to Tavia.
It seemed to Dorothy that she blushed all over—fairly burned—
whenever she thought of discussing her feelings regarding Garry
Knapp.
Never before in her experience had Dorothy Dale been so quickly
and so favorably impressed by a man. Tavia had joked about it, but
she by no means understood how deeply Dorothy felt. And Dorothy
would have been mortified to the quick had she been obliged to tell
even her dearest chum the truth.
Dorothy’s home training had been most delicate. Of course, in the
boarding school she and Tavia had attended there were many sorts
of girls; but all were from good families, and Mrs. Pangborn, the
preceptress of Glenwood, had had a strict oversight over her girls’
moral growth as well as over their education.
Dorothy’s own cousins, Ned and Nat White, though collegians,
and of what Tavia called “the harum-scarum type” like herself, were
clean, upright fellows and possessed no low ideas or tastes. It
seemed to Dorothy for a man to make the acquaintance of a strange
girl on the street and talk with her as Garry Knapp seemed to have
done, savored of a very coarse mind, indeed.
And all the more did she criticise his action because he had taken
advantage of the situation of herself and her friend and “picked
acquaintance” in somewhat the same fashion with them on their
entrance into New York.
He was “that kind.” He went about making the acquaintance of
every girl he saw who would give him a chance to speak to her! That
is the way it looked to Dorothy in her present mood.
She gave Garry Knapp credit for being a Westerner and being not
as conservative as Eastern folk. She knew that people in the West
were freer and more easily to become acquainted with than Eastern
people. But she had set that girl down as a common flirt, and she
believed no gentleman would so easily and naturally fall into
conversation with her as Garry Knapp had, unless he were quite
used to making such acquaintances.
It shamed Dorothy, too, to think that the young man should go
straight from her and Tavia to the girl.
That was the thought that made the keenest wound in Dorothy
Dale’s mind.
They shopped “furiously,” as Tavia declared, all the morning, only
resting while they ate a bite of luncheon in one of the big stores, and
then went at it again immediately afterward.
“The boys talk about ‘bucking the line’ about this time of year—
football slang, you know,” sighed Tavia; “but believe me! this is some
‘bucking.’ I never shopped so fast and furiously in all my life.
Dorothy, you actually act as though you wanted to get it all over with
and go home. And we can stay a week if we like. We’re having no
fun at all.”
Dorothy would not answer. She wished they could go home. It
seemed to her as though New York City was not big enough in which
to hide away from Garry Knapp.
They could not secure seats—not those they wanted—for the play
Ned and Nat had told them to see, for that evening; and Tavia
insisted upon going back to the hotel.
“I am done up,” she announced. “I am a dish-rag. I am a disgrace
to look at, and I feel that if I do not follow Lovely Lucy Larriper’s
advice and relax, I may be injured for life. Come, Dorothy, we must
go back to our rooms and lie down, or I shall lie right down here in
the gutter and do my relaxing.”
They returned to the hotel, and Dorothy almost ran through the
lobby to the elevator, she was so afraid that Garry Knapp would be
waiting there. She felt that he would be watching for them. The note
he had written her that morning proved that he was determined to
keep up their acquaintanceship if she gave him the slightest
opening.
“And I’ll never let him—never!” she told herself angrily.
“Goodness! how can you hurry so?” plaintively panted Tavia, as
she sank into the cushioned seat in the elevator.
All the time they were resting, Dorothy was thinking of Garry. He
would surely be downstairs at dinner time, waiting his chance to
approach them. She had a dozen ideas as to how she would treat
him—and none of them seemed good ideas.
She was tempted to write him a note in answer to the line he had
left with the clerk for her that morning, warning him never to speak to
her friend or herself again. But then, how could she do so bold a
thing?
Tavia got up at last and began to move about her room. “Aren’t
you going to get up ever again, Doro?” she asked. “Doesn’t the inner
man call for sustenance? Or even the outer man? I’m just crazy to
see Garry Knapp and ask him how he came by my bag.”
“Oh, Tavia! I wish you wouldn’t,” groaned Dorothy.
“Wish I wouldn’t what?” demanded her friend, coming to her open
door with a hairbrush in her hand and wielding it calmly.
Dorothy “bit off” what she had intended to say. She could not bring
herself to tell Tavia all that was in her mind. She fell back upon that
“white fib” that seems first in the feminine mind when trouble
portends:
“I’ve such a headache!”
“Poor dear!” cried Tavia. “I should think you had. You ate scarcely
any luncheon——”
“Oh, don’t mention eating!” begged Dorothy, and she really found
she did have a slight headache now that she had said so.
“Don’t you want your dinner?” cried Tavia, in horror.
“No, dear. Just let me lie here. You—you go down and eat.
Perhaps I’ll have something light by and by.”
“That’s what the Esquimau said when he ate the candle,” said
Tavia, but without smiling. It was a habit with Tavia, this saying
something funny when she was thinking of something entirely foreign
to her remark.
“You’re not going to be sick, are you, Doro?” she finally asked.
“No, indeed, my dear.”
“Well! you’ve acted funny all day.”
“I don’t feel a bit funny,” groaned Dorothy. “Don’t make me talk—
now.”
So Tavia, who could be sympathetic when she chose, stole away
and dressed quietly. She looked in at Dorothy when she was ready
to go downstairs, and as her chum lay with her eyes closed Tavia
went out without speaking.
Garry Knapp was fidgeting in the lobby when Tavia stepped out of
the car. His eye brightened—then clouded again. Tavia noticed it,
and her conclusion bore out the thought she had evolved about
Dorothy upstairs.
“Oh, Mr. Knapp!” she cried, meeting him with both hands
outstretched. “Tell me! How did you find my bag?”
And Garry Knapp was impolite enough to put her question aside
for the moment while he asked:
“Where’s Miss Dale?”
Two hours later Tavia returned to her chum. Garry walked out of
the hotel with his face heavily clouded.
“Just my luck! She’s a regular millionaire. Her folks have got more
money than I’ll ever even see if I beat out old Methuselah in age!
And Miss Tavia says Miss Dale will be rich in her own right. Ah,
Garry, old man! There’s a blank wall ahead of you. You can’t jump it
in a hurry. You haven’t got the spring. And this little mess of money I
may get for the old ranch won’t put me in Miss Dorothy Dale’s class
—not by a million miles!”
He walked away from the hotel, chewing on this thought as though
it had a very, very bitter taste.
CHAPTER VIII
AND STILL DOROTHY IS NOT HAPPY