"Oh, pretty much what I expected."

"Did nothing strike you as peculiar about it?"

My thoughts flew to Mary Cavendish, and I hedged:

"In what way?"

"Well, Mr. Lawrence Cavendish's evidence for instance?"

I was relieved.

"Oh, Lawrence! No, I don't think so. He's always a nervous
chap."

"His suggestion that his mother might have been poisoned
accidentally by means of the tonic she was taking, that did not
strike you as strange--hein?"

"No, I can't say it did. The doctors ridiculed it of course.
But it was quite a natural suggestion for a layman to make."

"But Monsieur Lawrence is not a layman. You told me yourself
that he had started by studying medicine, and that he had taken
his degree."

"Yes, that's true. I never thought of that." I was rather
startled. "It _is_ odd."