The Mysteries of the Court of London, Vol. 5 — page 365: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Se a a A TT TOS ES a a SE, EIR 352 Lady Saxondale had listoncd in speechless con- aternation to tho physician's words: but it was with a consternation that wns folt inwardly rathor than shown outwardly-«so that he himself observed net tho full effects of what ho had said. -1Qg* iP Gna —w: = waht -ef@ £4 THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. ian 2. ee Ge oe a a ee a aE aa he 908 Gee chew! & moment's respite to conceal the phial. So soon as one drop—one single drop of that colourless fluid, touched her throat, life was extinct. It is clear beyond the possibility of doubt—too horribly cicar indeed—that Mabel Stewa:t was murdered” - “Well,” bg resumed, “you may suppose, Lady; “Murdered!” cjaculated Gady Saxondalo: “and Saxondale, that I was horrified on making this dis- , beneath my roof!” ° covery—nay, more than horrified—I was bewildered“ It was even s0,” rejoined tho doctor in a mourn- and dismayed. To no human being had I ever ful voice. “But bow could the pvison have been given the smallest phial of that poison. I never ébtainedP Ah, God forgive mo if I wrong you, eliminated it but twice. On the first occasion, the as [ am suro I must: but a frightful suspicion bottle which contained it was broken elong with ' arosa in my mind——Indeed, it,was. the only pos- several others, as you must remember, on that night sible. means of accounting for an ircivent which whon you visited me in Conduit Street.” ; would otherwise be utterly inexplicablha-——” “I doromomber. It was through my carolessness | “ Name that suspicion: what wasit, Dr. Ferney ?” or awkwardness,” said Lady Saxondale; “and you know how sorry I was. But pray proceed.” “On the second occasion when Iseliminatéd the poison, I put my own seal upon the coxk of tho bot- tle~and I locked it up in a drawer in my laboratory. | | oan I possibly name Xi P!’ That bottlo is still there: the cork haz not been tampered with—the seal has never been broken. And yet, as sure as I am speaking to you‘now, that woman died of the very poison which I discovered ! That it could have been obtained elsewhere, was impossible. I am too intimately acquainted with all the fruits of chemical research to admit the sup- position for a moment, that any other experimentalist has succeeded in eliminating this poison, which is fur moro powerful than Prussic acid. You may con- ecive, therefore, how bewildered—how pefplexed— how dismayed I was!” * ¢ mo « Naturally so, my dear Dr. Ferney, ” observed Lady Saxondale, whoawas herself far more dismayed. than ever the physician could have beéa, although she concealed the outward expression of. her terror with a wonderful dissimulation of a mere ordinary interest in what he was reciting. . | “T at once repaired,” resumed the doctor, “ to -~and for the second time on the evening of which we are speaking, did Lady Saxondale’s voice sound hollow and sopulehral to her own ears. “l dare not name that suspicion,” murmurv:! tho physician. “My Ged! when: look at you, how “But you must, doctor: for I sce that there is somet)ing to explain away.” “Until this night—as you aré awarc—I knew not that Mrs. Smith and Lady Saxondale wore identical,” continued the physician, in a slow and hesitajing manner. “ But I feared that sho who I believed to be Mrs. Smith had taken tho phial from my laboratory on that mght when sho visited me; and that she had carelessly or thoughtlessly communicated the sfiturv of the poison to sume one else at Saxondale House—and hence the eatas- trophe. ‘Therefore, now that I find Mra, Smith identified with Lady Saxondale, you can full well | understand with what diflidenco it is that I aim com- pelled to repeat my suspicion to your face—that your ladyship took away that bottle of pvison with you on that particular night!” , “Dre Ferney, can you believe ¢° capable of the person who had procured for me the ourpse. | having used the venom forG murderols purpose ?”— From hin I obtained the name which was on the coffin of the stulon body. Again I must ask you to ' forgive me the necessity of toughihg upon details | sv indelicate—so nauseating to yourself——~”’ “Make no apology, doctor,” said Lady Saxon- | and Lady Saxondale spoke in a voice of mild and melancholy rebuke: for she knew the physician’s charactcr too well to, assume indignation with him. 6 “Qh, tell mo that you took tho phial,” ho said, _ must have been too instantaneyus to allow her even . dale, with every appourance of tho utmost affubility; | with far greater excitement than it was his wont to “but continue yourstrange and exciting narrative.” | display; “and that it must have fallen into villanous “ Provided with the namo of the woman,” conti-! and unscrupulous hands! Tell me this—tell me nued the physician, ‘I, on the following day, when |! anything that willstifi enable me to contemplate you baving an hvur’s Icisure, @ustituted the requisite ; on that,high pedestal which you have over occupied inquiries at the parochial Registrar’s office, and | in my mind!” ‘ discovered flat this woman, Mabel Stewart, died at | ' “Well, then, my dear Dr. Ferney,” said her Saxondale Jlouse. I then searched a file of news. ; ledyship, taking his hand, and looking in an appeal- papers, and found that an inquest had sat upon the | ing manger up into his countenance, “I must plead body, and that the verdict attributed her degth to | guilty to that little act which you have named. I will apoplexy. Now, Lady Saxondale,” added the | not stigmatize myself with the commission of a docter, “there is sumthing horribly and fearfully | theft—becayse in respect to a friend mich ascyou, it wyaterious in the death of that woman !” cannot be rejarded in that light: but it was through “You astonish me, my dear Dr. Ferney!” cried curiosity tha} I took it. You know how deeply her ladyship, who had ‘no ‘need to affect dismay: interested I felt in your discoveriesa——” for she had only to suffer the real consternation she! “Ah! but now that I bethink me,” interrupted had felt, to appear from behind the mask of dis- | Dr. Ferney, “I cannot feel otherwise than deeply, simulation, “Could the unhappy woman have! deeply grieved to hear that you did take that phial. committed suicide ?” The deed was not well,” he continued in a tone of “Tfso, the phial containing the’ poison must have : exceeding mournfulness and with corresponding becn found. by her side,” responded the physician: 'Jooks. ‘Ht almost makes me regret, Lady Saxon- “but the cvidence given on the inquest, clearly dale, that I lent myself to that transaction which proved that no such discovery took place: Death nincteen years ago——” ‘For God's sake,” mupmured the unhappy | up eb We ee -e ae ot -aae- — 6 é “" = MO 8 Fe Rs pen i | toe aes om -ai@re 1'@ + wt Oe LO ee -@7 *@-~d~e@enre = | eo. 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