"Wine glasses!" whispered Homais.
"If only we were in town, we could fall back upon stuffed trotters."
"Be quiet! Sit down, doctor!"
He thought fit, after the first few mouthfuls, to give some details as to the catastrophe.
"We first had a feeling of siccity in the pharynx, then intolerable pains at the epigastrium, super purgation, coma."
"But how did she poison herself?"
"I don't know, doctor, and I don't even know where she can have procured the arsenious acid."
Justin, who was just bringing in a pile of plates, began to tremble.
"What's the matter?" said the chemist.
At this question the young man dropped the whole lot on the ground with a crash.
"Imbecile!" cried Homais. "awkward lout! block-head! confounded a*s!"
But suddenly controlling himself--
"I wished, doctor, to ma
