"I'll answer your question when you define right and wrong for me," he
said quietly.
They grew silent together, watching the gradual sinking of day into
twilight and early dusk. Norton, for all his vaunted ravings, had
grown thoughtful; Virginia turning her eyes toward him while his were
staring out beyond the house-tops saw in them a look of deep, frowning
speculation. And through this look, like a little fire gleaming
through a fog, was another look whose meaning baffled her.
"What do you think of Patten?" he asked.
Startled by his abruptness, characteristic of him though it was to-day,
she asked in puzzled fashion:
"What do you mean?"
"Not as a man," he said, withdrawing his gaze from the sunset and
bestowing it gravely upon her. "As a physician. Do you size him up as
capable or as something of a quack?"
She hesitated. But finally she made the only reply possible.
"Of course you don't expect any answer, knowing that you should not
come to one member of a profession for an estimate of another. And,
besides, you realize that I know nothing whatever of Dr. Patten, either
as a man or as a physician."
He laughed softly.
"Hedging, pure, unadulterated hedging! I didn't look for that from
you. Shall I tell you what we both think of him? He is a farce and a
fake, and I rather think that I am going to run him out of the State
pretty soon.
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