'May I say a few words to you alone, if you please?'

Mrs. Darrell rose, with a hurried anxious look.

'What can you have to say to Mr. Hale alone, Miss Crofton?' she
asked.

'It is about herself, perhaps,' said the doctor kindly. 'I have told
her all along that she would be knocked up by this nursing; and now
I daresay she begins to find I am right.'

'Yes,' I said, 'it is about myself I want to speak.'

Mrs. Darrell went to one of the windows, and stood with her face
turned away from us, looking out. I followed Mr. Hale into the
dressing-room.

I unlocked the wardrobe, took out the medicine-bottle, and told the
doctor my suspicions of the previous night. He listened to me with
grave attention, but with an utterly incredulous look.

'A nervous fancy of yours, no doubt, Miss Crofton,' he said;
'however, I'll take the medicine back to my surgery and analyse it.'

'I have something more to tell you, Mr. Hale.'

'Indeed!'

I repeated, word for word, what Peter had told me about Mrs.
Darrell's visit to his grandmother.