“And do you seriously expect me to believe this?” I asked coldly.
“Should I have had the solicitor here?” she demanded, “if I had really meant—meant to——”
She sobbed momentarily, and then regained control of herself.
“I don’t know,” I said, “but it occurs to me that the brain that was capable of deliberately arranging a murder to take place in the presence of the doctor might have some hidden purpose in securing also the presence of the solicitor at the performance.”
“Mr. Grist is unaware that the solicitor is here. He has been informed that Mr. Dancer is my uncle, and favourable to the—to the——” she stopped, apparently overcome.
“Oh, indeed!” I ejaculated, adding: “And after all you did not mean to administer this poison! I suppose you meant to withdraw the glass at the last instant?”
“It is not poison,” she replied.
“Not poison?”
“No. I did not exchange the bottles. I only pretended to.”
“There seems to have been a good deal of pretending,” I observed. “By the way, may I ask why you were giving this stuff, whether it is poison or not, to my patient? I do not recollect that I ordered a second dose.”