ay Dr. Wellesley was there until half-past seven. What happened
then?"

"He went out of the surgery."

"Do you mean out of the house?"

"I mean what I say. Out of the surgery."

"Where is the surgery situated?"

"At the back of the house; behind the dining-room. There's a way into it
from St. Lawrence Lane. That's the way the patients come in."

"Did Dr. Wellesley go out that way, or did he go into the house?"

"I don't know where he went. All I know is--he went, leaving me there."

"Didn't say where he was going?"

"He didn't say anything."

"Was he dressed for going out?"

"No--he was wearing a white linen jacket. Such as we always wear at
surgery hours."

"And that was at half-past seven?"

"Half-past seven precisely."

"How do you fix the time?"

"There's a big, old-fashioned clock in the surgery. Just as Dr.
Wellesley went out I heard the Moot Hall clock chime half-past seven,
and then the chimes of St. Hathelswide's Church. I noticed that our
clock was a couple of minutes slow, and I put it right."

"When did you next see Dr. Wellesley?"

"At just eleven minutes to eight."

"Where?"

"In the surgery."

"He came back there?"

"Yes."

"How do you fix that precise time--eleven minutes to eight?"

"Because he'd arranged to see a patient in Meadow Gate at ten minutes to
eight. I glanced at the clock as he came in, saw what time it was, and
reminded him of the appointment."

"Did he go to keep it?"

"He did."

"Was he still wearing the white linen jacket when he came back to you?"

"Yes. He took it off, then put on his coat and hat and went out again."

"According to what you say he was out of the surgery, wearing that white
linen jacket, exactly nineteen minutes. Did he say anything to you when
he came back at eleven minutes to eight of where he had been or what he
had been doing during the interval between 7.30 and 7.49?"

"He said nothing."

"You concluded that he had been in the house?"

"I concluded nothing. I never even thought about it. But I certainly
shouldn't have thought that he would go out into the street in his
surgery jacket."

"Well, Dr. Wellesley went out at 7.50 to see this patient in Meadow
Gate. Did anything unusual happen after that--in the surgery, I mean?"

"Nothing, until a little after eight. Then a policeman came for Dr.
Wellesley, saying that the Mayor had been found dead in his Parlour,
and that it looked like murder. I sent him to find Dr. Wellesl