"There was a reason why you did not hear of this evidence earlier. You asked me to give you my theory, Had I not better do so before going into other matters?"
She raised her clasped hands slightly from her lap in faint protest.
"I beg your pardon for interrupting you. By all means let me have the theory first. My anxiety betrayed me into asking questions which ought to have been deferred."
He was filled with admiration of this woman who could keep so closely to the point, and with shame for himself for his unthrifty straying from it.
"As you are no doubt aware, chloroform affects different people in different ways. A little of it will kill some people; a large quantity will scarcely affect others. Many under its influence become delirious and rave. At certain periods, while under the power of chloroform, one may be relieved of pain, conscious of surrounding things, capable of moving, and yet delirious. The theory I would suggest is that Mr. Davenport inhaled some chloroform to ease a spasm of asthma, that he became delirious, that he had a return of his old hallucination, then wrote what was found on the leaf torn from the book, and while endeavouring to administer a second dose to himself, spilled the contents of the bottle over his beard and chest."
Her words came in as calm and measured a way as though she were speaking on an abstract subject to an indifferent audience.
As she went on, Pringle's admiration gave way to amazement. A scientific witness could not be more unmoved. Was it possible this superb woman opposite him had been explaining to him in these cold, measured accents her way of accounting for the death of a husband who had been alive and without any immediate danger of death a couple of days ago, and who had since died a death which was, to say the least of it, provocative of inquiry?
He leaned back in his chair, sighed thoughtfully, and knit his brows. He cleared his throat once or twice to speak, but remained silent. He felt dull and heavy, as though something oppressed his chest.
"That is my theory--the only possible theory," she said, leaning forward and looking quietly into his face, without any change in the expression of her own.
He shook himself slightly, looked perplexed, not satisfied. At last he spoke: