‘But, good God, man, of course she’s distressed! Look here. Suppose – I admit nothing – but suppose she came across that wretched kid, blubbing his eyes out because he’d been baited about his warts. Suppose she saw him trying to wash them off and on the spur of the moment, remembering the history of wart-cures, she made him believe they would clear up if he thought they would. Very well. The boy goes home and they do. Before we know – she knows – where she is, the whole thing blows up into a highly publicized nine-days-wonder. She can’t make up her mind to disabuse the boy or disillusion the people that follow him. It gets out of hand. The longer she hesitates, the harder it gets.’

‘Yes,’ Alleyn said. ‘I know. That all makes sense and is perfectly understandable.’

‘Very well, then!’ he said impatiently.

‘She was overwhelmingly anxious that I shouldn’t tell her husband.’

‘I daresay,’ Dr Maine said shortly. ‘He’s not a suitable subject for confidences.’

‘Did she tell you? All right,’ Alleyn said answering the extremely dark look Dr Maine gave him. ‘I know I’m being impertinent. I’ve got to be.’

‘I am her doctor. She consulted me about it. I advised her to say nothing.’

‘Yes?’

‘The thing was working. Off and on, as always happens in these emotional – these faith-cures, if you like – there are authentic cases. With people whose troubles had a nervous connotation, the publicizing of this perfectly innocent deception would have been harmful.’

‘Asthma, for one?’

‘Possibly.’

‘Miss Cost, for instance?’

‘If you like.’

‘Was Miss Cost a patient of yours?’

‘She was. She had moles that needed attention; she came into my nursing home and I removed them. About a year ago, it would be.’

‘I wish you’d tell me what she was like.’

‘Look here, Alleyn, I really do not see that the accident of my being called out to examine the body requires me to disregard my professional obligations. I do not discuss my patients alive or dead, with any layman.’

Alleyn said mildly: ‘His Worship the Mayor seems to think she was a near-nymphomaniac.’

Dr Maine snorted.

‘Well, was she?’

‘All right. All right. She was a bloody nuisance, like many another frustrated spinster. Will that do?’

‘Nicely, thank you. Do you imagine she ever suspected the truth about the Green Lady?’

‘I have not the remotest idea but I should think it most unlikely. She, of all people! Look at that damn’ farce of a show yesterday. Look at her shop! Green Ladies by the gross. If you want my opinion on the case which I don’t suppose you do –’

‘On the contrary I was going to ask for it.’