"Poisoning is a beastly crime, don't you think?" said Wimsey.
He got up quickly. Father Whittington was approaching, with Penberthy.
"Well," said Lord Peter, "have the altars reeled?"
"Dr. Penberthy has just informed me that they haven't a leg to stand on," replied the priest, smiling. "We have been spending a pleasant quarter of an hour abolishing good and evil. Unhappily, I understand his dogma as little as he understands mine. But I exercised myself in Christian humility. I said I was willing to learn."
Penberthy laughed.
"You don't object, then, to my casting out devils with a syringe," he said, "when they have proved obdurate to prayer and fasting?"
"Not at all. Why should I? So long as they are cast out. And provided you are certain of your diagnosis."
Penberthy crimsoned and turned away sharply.
"Oh, lord!" said Wimsey. "That was a nasty one. From a Christian priest, too!"
"What have I said?" cried Father Whittington, much disconcerted.