“The nature of the case? I realize it, Mrs. Murchison, too gravely to admit this meeting to be a pleasure.”
His chilly suavity reacted on Catherine as Betty Steel had promised. Individual antipathy comes quickly to the surface. Any display of feeling before Parker Steel would have been like throwing a burning torch down into the snow.
“I presume you realize the nature of the responsibility you are assuming?”
Her tone had nothing of pacification or appeal. The curve of her neck became the more haughty as she realized the purpose of the man to whom she spoke.
“It is my responsibility, Mrs. Murchison,” and he bent his slim and black-sheathed figure slightly over the rail of the chair, “that makes this interview the more painful to me.”
“You have accused my husband of gross incompetence and carelessness.”
“I have stated facts.”
“Dr. Murchison’s surgical experience is not that of a mere theorist. It has an established reputation. You understand me?”
Parker Steel understood her perfectly, his nostrils lifting at the rebuff.
“My duty, Mrs. Murchison, is towards my own conscience.”