“I am going, and I am going to leave this country,” said the doctor. “I am going East. No, this is no sudden resolve. I have thought of it for some time, and now I will go.”
“Well, you must wait at least till Allan returns. You must say good-by to him.” She followed the doctor anxiously back to his seat beside the Inspector. “Here,” she cried, “hold baby a minute. There are some things I must attend to. I would give him to the Inspector, but he would not know how to handle him.”
“God forbid!” ejaculated the Inspector firmly.
“But I tell you I must get home,” said the doctor in helpless wrath.
“Nonsense!” exclaimed Mrs. Cameron. “Look out! You are not holding him properly. There now, you have made him cry.”
“Pinched him!” muttered the Inspector. “I call that most unfair. Mean advantage to take of the young person.”
The doctor glowered at the Inspector and set himself with ready skill to remedy the wrong he had wrought in the young person's disposition while the mother, busying herself ostentatiously with her domestic duties, finally disappeared around the house, making for the bluff. As soon as she was out of earshot she raised her voice in song.
“I must give the fools warning, I suppose,” she said to herself. In the pauses of her singing, “Oh, what does she mean? I could just shake her. I am so disappointed. Smith! Smith! Well, Smith is all right, but—oh, I must talk to her. And yet, I am so angry—yes, I am disgusted. I was so sure that everything was all right. Ah, there she is at last, and—well—thank goodness he is gone.
“Oh-h-h-h-O, Moira!” she cried. “Now, I must keep my temper,” she added to herself. “But I am so cross about this. Oh-h-h-h-O, Moira!”
“Oh-h-h-h-O!” called Moira in reply.