"That is unfortunate, for I will not certify."
"What!" cried Paulton, leaning still farther forward, "you will not certify as to the cause of death? What do you mean?"
He shivered, and looked apprehensively at the body reclining on the couch.
"I don't know what the cause of death was."
"She said spasmodic asthma."
"A disease that very, very rarely kills."
"I thought that, on the contrary, it was most fatal."
"No. In a paroxysm of coughing, something in the head or chest may give way, but asthma itself does not kill."
An uneasy expression came into the young man's face, and, looking straight into the doctor's eyes, he said:
"And in this case what do you think killed?"