He sat down by her. She began to cough violently and he asked, troubled, “Who’s taking care of you, anyway?”
“Higgins and a couple of doctors.”
“That’s all?”
Dan didn’t follow up his jealous suspicion, but asked in a tone almost paternal and softly confidential:
“How are your finances getting on?”
Her lips curved in a friendly smile. But she made a dismissing gesture with her frail little hand.
“Oh, I’m all right; Higgins told me you had some news about my poor people.”
The fact that she did not take up the financial subject made him unpleasantly sure that her wants had been supplied.
“Got a whole bunch of news,” Dan replied cheerfully. “I went to see the old man and the girl in their diggings. Gosh, you couldn’t believe such things were true.”