"It isn't easy to let—him—go."
"It isn't easy for anybody to let him go."
The eyes of the two women went to where Richard in the midst of a protesting group was trying to explain his reasons for deserting Crossroads.
He couldn't explain. They had a feeling that he was turning his back on them. "It's hard lines to have a good doctor and then lose him," was the general sentiment. He was made to feel that it would have been better not to have come than to end by deserting.
He was aware that he had forfeited something precious, and he voiced his thought when he joined his mother and Anne.
"I'll never have a practice quite like this. Neighborhood ties are something they know little about in cities."
His mother smiled up at him bravely. "There'll be other things."
"Perhaps;" he patted her hand. Then he fired a question at Anne. "Do you think I ought to go?"
"How can I tell?" Her eyes met his candidly. "I felt when you came that I couldn't understand how a man could bury himself here. And now I am wondering how you can leave. It seems as if you belong."
"I know what you mean."