“To you? No. Not in any appreciable degree. You are a full-blooded girl. You can spare much more than Johnny needs——”
“Then let it be done,” said Hester, firmly.
“We’ll have to see what your mother and father say.”
“You leave that to me,” said Hester. “I know how to manage them.”
Dr. Agnew looked at her for a moment with his brow wrinkled and his lips pursed up. “I’m not sure whether, if you were my daughter, I should be most proud of you, or afraid for you,” he said.
She only looked puzzled by his speech. “What do you want me to do?” she asked, finally.
“Come here to the light,” the doctor said, rummaging in his kit for a tiny instrument. He held her thumb firmly. “It will only be a needle prick.”
“Go ahead,” said Hester.
He shot the needle into the ball of her thumb and drew out a drop or two of blood in the glass bulb of the syringe.
“We’ll just find out what this tells about you in the laboratory,” said the doctor. “I’m much mistaken if it doesn’t tell a good story, Hester Grimes. Then I’ll come and see your father and mother this evening.”