“I will be perfectly frank with you, my child. No he is not acting rightly, and the use of this drug is doing him harm.”
“Ah!” ejaculated Claude; and then, with eyes flashing and an indignant look, “How can you let him go on taking it, then?”
“Because I cannot help myself, my dear madam; and as I have before observed, it is better that he should take it under my supervision than left to himself, though even now I am helpless. I prescribe certain quantities, but I cannot prevent his taking more.”
“But why don’t you tell him that it is bad for him?”
“I have done so a score of times.”
“And what does he say?”
“That I am a fool, and am to mind my own business.”
“Oh!” ejaculated Claude, with the troubled look in her face increasing.
“He tells me plainly that if I do not choose to go on attending him as he wishes, he will call in some one else. My dear Miss Gartram, your father is not a man to drive; he always insists on holding the reins himself.”
“But, Doctor Asher, cannot anything be done?”