"Yes, sir, I think she had. I think she was still smelling at the pills. I know the poor little innocents was lying one on one knee, and one on t'other, all flat, and her two hands was lifted with the box in 'em." "It was after that that you took the pills out of it to give the children?" "Yes, sir; directly after. But Ann Dovey wouldn't do nothing wrong to the pills, sir." "That will do," said the coroner in his curt way. "Call Ann Dovey." Ann Dovey walked forward with a face as red as her new bonnet-strings. She had heard the whole colloquy: something seemed, too, to have put her out. Possessing scant veneration for coroners at the best of times, and none for the jury at present assembled, she did not feel disposed to keep down her temper. The few first questions asked her, however, afforded no opportunity for resentment, for they were put quietly, and tended only to extract confirmation of Mrs. Reed's evidence, as to fetching the pill-box from upstairs and administering the pills. Then the coroner cleared his throat. "Did you see the last witness, Hester Reed, go into the back kitchen for a spoon and saucer?" "I saw her go and fetch 'em from somewhere," replied Ann Dovey, who felt instinctively the ball was beginning, and gave the reins to her temper accordingly. "Did you take charge of the pill-box while she was gone?" "I had it in my hand, if you mean that." "Did anybody come into the kitchen during that interval?" "No they didn't," was the tart response. "You were alone, except for the two infants?" "I were. What of it?" "Now, witness, did you do anything with that box? Did you, for instance, exchange it for another?" "I think you ought to be ashamed o' yourselves, all on you, to sit and ask a body such a thing!" exploded Mrs. Dovey, growing every moment more resentful, at being questioned. "If I had knowed the bother that was to spring up, I'd have chucked the box, pills and all, into the fire first. I wish I had!" "Was the box, that you handed to Hester Reed on her return, the same box she left with you? Were the pills the same pills?" "Why, where d'ye think I could have got another box from?" shrieked Ann Dovey. "D'you suppose, sir, I carry boxes and pills about with me? I bain't so fond o' physic as all that comes to." "Dovey takes pills on occasion for that giddiness of his; I've seen him take 'em; mayhap you'd picked up a box of his," spoke Dobbs the blacksmith, mildly.