"I am here."
"But, sweetheart, you say he doesn't need special attention. It wouldn't even take the expense of a trained nurse—if your mother has to have some one. A woman like Mrs. Horton could do it."
"Who would pay?"
"We will—until you hear from Belle, anyhow."
"How?"
Roger looked away into the twinkling lights.
"You see," Anne said after a moment, with the prim patience that made Roger feel like a greedy child clinging to his toys. "There's no sense in talking round and round like that. I couldn't go—even if I felt free in other ways."
Deftly Anne had poured the responsibility over him. Roger felt himself choking in the patience of Anne.
"You don't want to go. Why can't you be honest and say so?"
"I can't leave them with no one to see after papa." Anne's reiteration was an iceberg before the sputtering match of his objections.