Mark turned and looked at him: a quick, sharp glance. "What do you know about it?" he asked.
"I? I know nothing about it: I want to know," replied Oswald, thinking the remark strange. "I wish you would give me the full particulars, Mark. I cannot understand--I have a reason for not being able to understand--why chloroform should have been given to Lady Oswald----"
"We use chloroform very much now," interrupted Mark.
"Why it should have been given to Lady Oswald," went on Oswald, with pointed emphasis.
"It was given to her as it is given to others--to deaden pain."
"Who performed the operation?"
"The doctor."
There was a pause. When Oswald Cray broke it his voice was low, his manner hesitating. "Mark, will you pardon me if I ask you a peculiar question?--Do you believe from your very heart that when Dr. Davenal administered that chloroform to Lady Oswald he did think it would be for the best?"
Hesitating as Oswald's manner had been. Mark's was worse. He grew on a sudden flushed and embarrassed.
"Won't you answer me, Mark?"