“I usually worked by myself.”
“At what time in the day used you to work there?”
“In the afternoon, as a rule.”
“At what hours does Dr. Dimsdale visit his patients?”
“Most of the day. He goes out about ten and finishes about six or seven.”
“So that you would usually be alone in the surgery?”
“Yes, usually.”
As the coroner wrote down the answer I noticed the super-intelligent juryman fidgeting in his seat. At length he burst out:
“Is the poison cupboard in the surgery?”
The coroner looked interrogatively at Wallingford, who stared at him blankly in sudden confusion.