The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 363: what you’re looking at

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

a EN ——EE————EEe THE MYSTERIES OF THE OCOURP. 852 : Lady Saxondale had listened in speechless con- sternation to the physician’s words: but it was with a consternation that was felt inwardly rather than shown outwardly—so that he himself observed not the full effects of what he had said. “Well,” he resumed, “you may suppose, Lady Saxondale, that I was horrified on making this dis- covery—nay, more than horrified—I was bewildered and dismayed. To no human being had I ever given the smallest phial of that poison. I never eliminated it but twice. On the first occasion, the bottle which contained it was broken along with several others, as you must remember, on that night when you visited me in Conduit Street.” “I doremember. It was through my carelessness | or awkwardness,” said Lady Saxondale; “and you know how sorry I was. But pray proceed.” “On the second occasion when I eliminated the poison, I put my own seal upon the cork of the bot- - tle—and I locked it up in a drawer in my laboratory. That bottle 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 far more powerful than Prussic acid. You may con- ceive, therefore, how bewildered—how perplexed— how dismayed I was!” “Naturally 20, my dear Dr. Ferney, ” observed Lady Saxondale, who was herself far more dismayed than ever the physician could have been, although she concealed the outward expression of her terror @ moment's respite to conceal the phial. So socom 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 clear indeed—that Mabel Stewart was murdered !” “ Murdered!” ejaculated Lady Saxondale: “and beneath my roof!” - It was even so,” rejoined the doctor in a mourn- ful voice. ‘But how could the poison have been obtained? Ah, God forgive me if I wrong you, ae I am sure [ must: but a frightful suspicion arose in my mind——Indeed, it was the only pos- sible means of accounting for an incident which would otherwise be utterly inexplicable——” “ Name that suspicion: what was it, Dr. Ferney ?” | —and for the second time on the evening of which | we are speaking, did Lady Saxondale’s voice sound hesi hollow and sepuichral to her own ears. “I dare not name that suspicion,” murmured the physician. “My God! when I look at you, how can I possibly name it P’’ “But you must, doctor: for I see that there is somet ing to explain away.” “Until this night—as you are aware—I knew not that Mre. Smith and Lady Saxondale were identical,” continued the physician, in a slow and itating manner. “Bat I feared that she who I believed to be Mrs. Smith had taken the phial from my laboratory on that night when she visited me; and that she had careleasly or thoughtlessly communicated the nature of the poison to some one else at Saxondale House—and hence the catas- trophe. Therefore, now that I find Mrs. Smith identified with Lady Saxondale, you can full well understand with what diffidence it is that I am com- pelled to repeat my suspicion to face—that with a wonderful dissimulation of a mere ordinary , your ladyship took away that bottle of poison with interest in what he was reciting. “T at once repaired,” resumed the doctor, “to .the person who had procured for me the corpse. From him I obtained the name which was on the coffin of the stolen body. Again I must ask you to forgive me the necessity of touching upon details eo indelicate—eo nauseating to yourself-——” _ “Make no apology, doctor,” said Lady Saxon- dale, with every appearance of the utmost affability ; “but continue your strange and exciting narrative.” “‘ Provided with the name of the woman,” conti- mued the physician, “I, on the following day, when ‘having an hour’s leisure, instituted the requisite inquiries at the parochial Registrar’s office, and discovered that this woman, Mabel Stewart, died at Saxondale House. I then searched a file of news- papers, and found that an inquest had sat upon the body, and that the verdict attributed her death to apoplexy. Now, Lady Saxondale,” added the doctor, “there is something horribly and fearfully wysterious in the death of that woman !” _ “You astonish me, my dear Dr. Ferney!” cried her ladyship, who had no need to affect dismay: for she bad only to suffer the real consternation she had felt, to appear from behind the mask of dis- simulation. “Could the unhappy woman have committed suicide ?”” must have been too instantangous to allow her even | you on that particular night!” “Dr. Ferney, can you believe me capable of having used the venom for a murderous purpose ?”— and Lady Saxondale spoke in a voice of mild and melancholy rebuke: for she knew the physician's character too well to assume indignation with him. ‘Oh, tell me that you took the phial,” he said, with far greater excitement than it was his wont to display ; “and that it must have fallen into villanous and unscrupulous hands! Tell me this—tell me anything that will still enable me to contemplate you on that high pedestal which you have ever occupied ix, my mind!” “Well, then, my dear Dr. Ferney,” said her ladyship, taking his hand, and looking in an appeal- ing manner up into his countenance, “I must plead guilty to that little act which you have named. I will not stigmatize myself with the commission of a theft— because in respect to a friend such as you, it cannot be regarded in that light: but it was through curiosity that I took it. You know how deeply interested I felt in your discovcries——” “Ah! but now that I bethink me,” inter. upted Dr. Ferney, “I cannot feel otherwise than deeply, deeply grieved to hear that you did take that phial. ! | The deed was not well,” he continued in a tone of “If 0, the phial containing the poison must have exceeding mournfulness and with corresponding been found by her side,” responded the physician: looks. “It almost makes me regret, Lady Saxon- “but the evidence 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,” musmured the unhappy OO)