Dr Drummond, of course, was there at
the station to explain. Finlay had been obliged to leave
for Winnipeg only the day before, to attend a mission
conference in place of a delegate who had been suddenly
laid aside by serious illness. Finlay, he said, had been
very loath to go, but there were many reasons why it was
imperative that he should; Dr Drummond explained them
all. "I insisted on it," he assured them, frankly. "I
told him I would take the responsibility."
He seemed very capable of taking it, both the ladies must
have thought, with his quick orders about the luggage
and his waiting cab. Mrs Kilbannon said so. "I'm sure,"
she told him, "we are better off with you than with Hugh.
He was always a daft dependence at a railway station."
They both--Mrs Kilbannon and Dr Drummond--looked out of
the corners of their eyes, so to speak, at Christie, the
only one who might be expected to show any sensitiveness;
but Miss Cameron accepted the explanation with readiness.
Indeed, she said, she would have been real vexed if Mr
Finlay had stayed behind on her account--she showed
herself well aware of the importance of a nomination,
and the desirability of responding to it.
"It will just give me an opportunity of seeing the town,"
she said, looking at it through the cab windows as they
drove; and Dr Drummond had to admit that she seemed a
sensible creature.
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