The older kissing couple contrast with the solitary patients around them. Robert had his parents, Bill and Isabel, pose for this image. The figures are quite small in the frame, but attention is directed to them by the round light above their heads. There is more detail in this image than in the earlier studies and a third waiting figure has been added. As so often in Robert’s work, he combines two ideas in a single image. The first idea involves the playing out of intimate moments in a public space. Here the space is rigidly sterile, without colour and uniformly geometrical. The box-like furniture has the appearance of a cubicle meant to isolate people from each other. In this stark and silent world of unconnecting strangers, an older couple express their feelings for one another. The second idea is to capture a sense of the variety of responses a patient or family member must confront while waiting to be examined. These responses include denial or thinking about other things such as the man reading the newspaper. The self-protective gesture of crossed arms, adopted by the seated woman, conveys a sense of worry, while the searching outward gaze of the man standing by the window suggests he is asking questions, possibly looking for meaning in his present situation.