“If it had been anything he had eaten you would all have been taken ill as well.”
“It would seem so. At least, I don’t know. There may have been some dish which we others did not touch.”
“It is all very mysterious, but it is quite possible that the doctors may be wrong.”
“Oh, quite,” I said dryly.
The rest of the drive he spent in asking after Lady Gascoyne, and for other details of the affair.
As we entered the great hall I saw the two doctors at a distant window in earnest consultation.
They came forward and greeted Mr. Gascoyne as the Earl.
They had evidently been waiting for him. Dr. Phillimore, the younger of the two, who had been called in in consultation, said at once:
“Dr. Grange is anxious for a private interview with you when you are at liberty.”
I had from the first felt nervous of Dr. Phillimore. He was evidently a man of exceptional intellectual power. He had a massive, square forehead, and a strong resolute face with an expression of great alertness. Even now, although he had had no rest for twenty-four hours, he showed few traces of fatigue. Dr. Grange, on the other hand, looked worn and jaded to a degree, and would, I am sure, had he been left to himself, have retired to rest before taking any further steps in the matter. I did not know that, whilst I had been out, Dr. Phillimore had been making extensive inquiries, and that he had already placed under lock and key everything which had been on the table the night before.