In spite of himself, the doctor laughed. Then he grew grave again.
“It’s not altogether funny, Nancy. You have unloaded a white elephant on my hands, and I can’t see what to do with it.”
“How do you mean?” she questioned, for she was quick to read the anxiety in her father’s tone.
“The man speaks no French that these people here can understand, and he is going to be helpless for a few days. How is he going to have proper care?”
“Send him in to Quebec. There must be a hospital there.”
“I won’t take the risk of moving him; not for ten days, at least.”
“Hm!” Nancy’s falling inflection was thoughtful. “And you came here to get away from all professional worry. Daddy, it’s a shame! I ought never to have had him brought here.”
Pausing in his tramp up and down the room, Dr. Howard rested his hand on the pile of auburn hair.
“It was all you could do, Nancy. One must take responsibilities as they come.”
Nancy broke the pause that followed. Rising, she pinned on her hat.