Mrs. Slocum looked at the doctor with a wide gape of surprise.
"Thought you knew," said she. "His name is Meserve, Mr. Edward Meserve, and if he has come and went, and not told where, he was good pay, and if he was took sick whilst he was to my house, I could have asked twice as much as I did before. I'd like to know what right you had to take my boarder to the hotel. He was my boarder. He wan't your boarder. I want him fetched right back. That's what I have came for."
"Mrs. Slocum," said Gordon in a hard voice, "Mr. Meserve is too sick to be moved, and his disease may be contagious. You might lose all your other boarders, and whether he recovers or not, you would be obliged to fumigate your house, and have his room repapered and plastered."
"He's got money enough to pay for it," Mrs. Slocum said doggedly.
"How do you know?"
"You think he ain't?"
Gordon looked imperturbable.
"He always paid me regular, and he ain't been to meals or to home nights two-thirds of the time."
Gordon said nothing.
"You mean if my other boarders went, and the room had to be done over, he ain't got money enough to make it good?"