“Doctor, I could have sworn it. Go on, I can bear the scandal.”
“Dr. Murchison made a very grave mistake.”
“He did!”
“A sponge and a pair of artery forceps were left in your husband’s body. As for the operation, well, the less said of it the better.”
Mrs. Baxter rose and went to the mantel-shelf, and taking down a bottle of smelling-salts, applied them deliberately to either nostril.
“Then this man Murchison killed my husband!”
Parker Steel gave an apologetic shrug.
“I have to state facts,” he explained. “I cannot swear to what might have happened.”
“Let the ‘might have’ alone, doctor. I’ve pulled the pease out of the pod, and by the Holy Spirit I’ll boil my water in Murchison’s pot!”
Parker Steel attempted to pacify her, confident in his heart that any such effort would be useless.