Warleggan by Winston Graham Read Free Book Online Page A

Mr. I rby was effusive, co-operative, but astonished; there would of course be sediment: the drugs Dwight had ord ered would refuse to mix and a precipitate would form. Dwight w ith deference corrected him. If the drugs were pure, it was quite impos sible, etc., etc. At this point the conversati on, while still polite, began to carry a sediment of its own. Dwight said he wished he might exa mine the drugs from which the physic was made up. Mr Irby squinted round the sides of his spectacles and, said that he had been practising in S t. Ann's for twenty years and no surgeon had ever cast a reflection on his competence, it was a plain question if whether the drugs were adulterated. Mr. Irby said he had never bought cheap drugs and he did not propose to be accused if that now, Dwig ht said he was sorry to have to insist, but he had a right by law as a physician to enter and examine the drugs in any druggist's establishment, and this he int ended to exercise. Followed by Mr. Irby, he went down the steps into the dungeon and pe ered about him in the uncertain light, at the Glauber's salts, the Dover's powders, the gamboge, the nux vomica, the paregorics, and the vermifuges.
    The noise of Mr. Irby's annoyance brought Mrs. Irby from a deeper dungeon behind the first, but Dwight went carefully in with his ex amination. He found what he had suspected; that cheap substitutes had been bought and labelled for more ex pensive drugs, and in two cases the powders had been adul terated with something, ground bone or chalk: All these he tipped into a wooden pail. When it was full, he walked out through the shop with it, followed by the druggist angrily demanding recompense and justice. As he went he saw a tall woman standing in the shop, but it was so dark that he did not take much note of her, He carried the pail round the backs of the houses, found the nearest open cessp ool, and tipped the contents in, t hen he carne back he saw that the woman was Caroline Penvenen..
     
    Five minutes later he left the shop, trying to dust the powder from his breeches and boots. Mr. Irby followed him to the door calling down the wrath of God, but abruptly disappeared - being lugged in by his wife, who was a powerful woman as well as an astute one and did not wish their neighbours to know more than could be helped.
    Dwight glanced at tine splendid chestnut held by a mounted groom, out he didn't stop, As he got to his own horse, Caroline came out of the shop.
    He took off his hat and the breeze fanned his face.
    She s aid; `Dr. Enys, as I'm alive! How diverting. And with such an expression as if the Last Trump'd blown. I almost mistook you for a vision of Judgment'
    He had been expecting, half dreading this meeting. Now that it had come, it had all the anticipated sen se of shock, it brought all the old feelings alive, In the middle of his anger he recognised them, every one. Her brilliant: hair blowing in the breeze was a renewed offence so was the curve of her strong feminine mouth, the laughter in her eyes.
    Dwight said ; `There are times, ma'am, when we can't wait for the Last Trump, but must pass a little judgment by the way.'
    She swung up on her horse, and the animal side-stepped spiritedly on the cobbles. 'And who is next to receive a chastising? May I a ccompany you for the entertainm ent?'
    'You may accompany me, but I've no entertainment to offer, I'm riding home now.'
    She shook her head, `You underrate yourself, Dr. Enys, Your company is fair entertainment for me any day,'
    He bowed, `Thank you, but we differ as to that. Good day."
    He rode off fairly boiling. She thought him a fool , and no doubt she was right. His life seemed bounded with futilities, and her being on the spot served to point them , He had just left St. Ann's when he beard the thump of hooves in the lane and Caroline drew abreast of him, Her groom was left behind.
    She said angrily- 'We meet after been months and you haven't even a civil word for me!'
    That, he thought, was a