"I can not leave; it is impossible."
"Where can I procure a horse, then?"
"I do not think I ought to allow it, Miss Douglas. It is nearly fifteen miles to the next valley; of course you can not go alone, and I can not spare Mary Crane to go with you." The surgeon spoke decidedly; he had daughters of his own at home, and felt himself responsible for this young nurse.
Anne looked at him. "Oh, do help me!" she cried, with an outburst of sudden emotion. "I must go; even if I go alone, and walk every step of the way, I must, must go!"
Dr. Caleb Flower was a slow man; but anything he had once learned he remembered. He now recognized the presence of what he called "one of those intense impulses which make even timid women for the time being inflexible as adamant."
"You will have to pay largely for horses and a guide," he said, in order to gain time, inwardly regretting meanwhile that he had not the power to tie this nurse to her chair.
"I have a little money with me."
"But even if horses are found, you can not go alone; and, as I said before, I can not spare Mary."
"Why would not Diana do?" said Anne.
"Diana!" exclaimed Dr. Flower, his lips puckering as if to form a long whistle.