"Mrs Davidson tells me that Thompson has been speaking to you."
Dr Macphail, thus directly tackled, had the shy man's resentment at being forced out into the open. He felt his temper rising, and he flushed.
"I don't see that it can make any difference if she goes to Sydney rather than to San Francisco, and so long as she promises to behave while she's here it's dashed hard to persecute her."
The missionary fixed him with his stern eyes.
"Why is she unwilling to go back to San Francisco?"
"I didn't enquire," answered the doctor with some asperity. "And I think one does better to mind one's own business."
Perhaps it was not a very tactful answer.
"The governor has ordered her to be deported by the first boat that leaves the island. He's only done his duty and I will not interfere. Her presence is a peril here."
"I think you're very harsh and tyrannical."
The two ladies looked up at the doctor with some alarm, but they need not have feared a quarrel, for the missionary smiled gently.