“Well, of course!” said Guy, rather impatiently. “You don't suppose I'm going to give anything away, do you, mother?”
“There's nothing to give away, dear. All I mean is that I don't want you to talk in that silly, exaggerated way you and Stella so often fall into, particularly when speaking of your uncle.”
“All right, all right!” Guy said. “I'm not quite a fool, mother!”
He went downstairs again, and found his sister in the hall, holding a low-voiced conversation with Dr Fielding. They both looked up as Guy rounded the bend in the stairs, and he saw that Stella was rather pale. “Mother wants you,” he told her. “Seen the giddy detective yet?”
“No. I'm scared stiff of him,” Stella confessed.
“You needn't be, Stella; he's not at all alarming,” said the doctor reassuringly.
“I shall go and blurt out something stupid. Policemen always terrify me,” said Stella with a nervous laugh. “You know, in spite of talking about it, and wondering what would happen if uncle had been poisoned, I never really believed he had been, did you, Guy? Deryk says it was nicotine, which, as a matter of fact, I always thought was the stuff you get in tobacco.”
“Well, so it is,” said Guy. “I didn't know you could poison people with it either. Is it often done, Fielding?”
“No, I don't think so,” replied the doctor shortly.
“I suppose he couldn't have taken it by accident, could he?” suggested Stella hopefully.