This time she entered the shop without an instant's hesitation.
"I have got an attack of toothache," she said, abruptly, to an elderly
man who stood behind the counter.
"May I look at the tooth, miss?"
"There is no necessity to look. It is a hollow tooth. I think I have
caught cold in it."
The chemist recommended various remedies which were in vogue fifteen
years since. She declined purchasing any of them.
"I have always found Laudanum relieve the pain better than anything
else," she said, trifling with the bottles on the counter, and looking
at them while she spoke, instead of looking at the chemist. "Let me have
some Laudanum."
"Certainly, miss. Excuse my asking the question--it is only a matter of
form. You are staying at Aldborough, I think?"
"Yes. I am Miss Bygrave, of North Shingles."
The chemist bowed; and, turning to his shelves, filled an ordinary
half-ounce bottle with laudanum immediately. In ascertaining his
customer's name and address beforehand, the owner of the shop had taken
a precaution which was natural to a careful man, but which was by no
means universal, under similar circumstances, in the state of the law at
that time.
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