"And these," the Duke pointed to the contents of the shelf—"all these are—medicines—or alkaloids?"
"They are both," she replied, with a hint of troubled hesitation in her tone.
"Tell me of them. I am interested," he asked, quietly.
She shook her head. "There is not time. Besides—"
"Ah! And these!—Now these are, indeed, curious, Mme. de Mailly! What are they?"
In the rear of the shelf he had spied the box of fungi. Drawing it towards him, he took from it one of the shrivelled brown things and examined it on all sides. Deborah watched him in silence, her feeling of uneasiness growing.
"What is it?" he repeated, smiling.
"It is the Amanita muscaria—poison mushrooms, that we use sometimes in Maryland for fly-poison."
"And how do they kill?"
"Monsieur, will you not put them up? I think it is time to go."