"You are trifling with me? I know that there is something wrong. I can see it in your manner and in Mr. Hughes's. See how strangely Mr. Hughes is behaving now."
I peeped round the corner. Hughes was behaving strangely. He was frantically urging Mrs. Chalmers to stand up and dance, though anyone looking less like dancing than she did I never saw. He was evidently forgetting his own axiom--keep cool. A curious qualm came over me. Almost without knowing it I leaned for support against the wall.
"George! What is the matter? You are ill."
Margaret's eager face looked into mine.
"It will be all right in a minute."
"It won't! I know it won't! Tell me what it is. There was something the matter with that stuff you gave us. I knew it directly I had swallowed it. Do you think I am a coward? Do you think I am afraid? But it is only fair that you should tell me. If you won't tell me, George, I will go to Mr. Hughes and insist upon his telling me."
"Don't, Margaret. The doctor will be here directly."
"The doctor?" She drew herself straight up. A strange look came into her eyes.
She spoke almost in a whisper. "What is the doctor coming for?"
"Hughes thought that he had better come."