If you ask me, he didn't think nothing of her at all, except as a patient.
It was all her doing.
Wouldn't leave him alone, she wouldn't."
"That's all very well, Elsie - don't mind me calling you Elsie, do you?
Feel as though I'd known you all my life."
"Well, you haven't!
Elsie indeed." She tossed her head.
"Oh, very well, Miss Batt." He gave her a glance. "As I was saying, that's all very well, but the husband he cut up rough all the same, didn't he?"
"He was a bit ratty one day," admitted Elsie. "But if you ask me he was ill at the time.
He died just after, you know."
"I remember - died of something queer, didn't he?"
"Something Japanese it was - all from a new shaving brush he'd got.
Seems awful, doesn't it, that they're not more careful?
I've not fancied anything Japanese since."
"Buy British, that's my motto," said Sergeant O'Connor sententiously. "And you were saying he and the doctor had a row?"
Elsie nodded, enjoying herself as she relived past scandals.
"Hammer and tongs they went at it," she said. "At least the master did.
Doctor Roberts was ever so quiet.
Just said,
'Nonsense.'
And, 'What have you got into your head?'"
'This was at the house, I suppose?"
"Yes.
She'd sent for him.
And then she and the master had words, and in the middle of it Doctor Roberts arrived, and the master went for him."
"What did he say exactly?"
"Well, of course I wasn't supposed to hear.
It was all in the missis's bedroom.
I thought something was up, so I got the dustpan and did the stairs. I wasn't going to miss anything."
Sergeant O'Connor heartily concurred in this sentiment, reflecting how fortunate it was that Elsie was being approached unofficially.
On interrogation by Sergeant O'Connor of the police she would have virtuously protested that she had not overheard anything at all.
"As I say," went on Elsie, "Doctor Roberts, he was very quiet - the master was doing all the shouting."
"What was he saying?" asked O'Connor, for the second time approaching the vital point.
"Abusing of him proper," said Elsie with relish.
"How do you mean?"
Would the girl never come to actual words and phrases?
"Well, I didn't understand a lot of it," admitted Elsie. "There were a lot of long words, 'unprofessional conduct' and 'taking advantage' and things like that - and I heard him say he'd get Doctor Roberts struck off the - Medical Register, would it be?
Something like that."
"That's right," said O'Connor. "Complain to the Medical Council."
"Yes, he said something like that.
And the missis was going on in sort of hysterics saying,
'You never cared for me.
You neglected me.
You left me alone.'
And I heard her say that Doctor Roberts had been an angel of goodness to her.
"And then the doctor, he came through into the dressing-room with the master and shut the door of the bedroom - I heard it and he said quite plain,
'My good man, don't you realize your wife's hysterical?
She doesn't know what she's saying.
To tell you the truth it's been a very difficult and trying case and I'd have thrown it up long ago if I'd thought it was' - con - con - some long word - oh, yes, consistent - that was it - 'consistent with my duty.'
That's what he said.