The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 367: what you’re looking at

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

352 "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. Jo 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.” “T doremember. It was through my carelessness or awkwardness,” said Lady Saxondale ; “and you —and for the second time on the evening of which — 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 ha3 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 so, 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 with a wonderful dissimulation of a mere ordinary 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 go indelicate—so 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- nued 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 | _ladyship, taking his hand, and looking in an appeal- 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 had 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 ?” “Ifso, the phial containing the poison must have been found by her side,” responded the physician : “but the evidence given on the inquest, clearly proved that no such discovery took place. Death must have been too instantaneous tv allow her even THE MYSTERIES OF THE COURT. a moment’s ‘respite to conceal the phial. Se 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 clear indeed—that Mabel Stewart was murdered !” “ Murdered!” ejaculated Lady Saxondale: “ and beneath my roof!’ - “It was even so,” rejoined the doctor i in @ mourn- ful voice. “But how could the poison have been obtained? Ah, God forgive me if I wrong you, as [I am sure I 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 ?” we are speaking, did Lady Saxondale’s yoice sound hollow and sepulchral to her own ears. “TI dare not name that suspicion,” murmured the physician. ‘My God! when I look at you, how can I possibly name it ?” “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 Mrs. Smith and Lady Saxondale were identical,” continued the physician, in a slow and hesitating manner. “ But 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 carelessly 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 your face—that your ladyship took away that bottle of poison with | 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 willstill enable me to contemplate you on that high pedestal which you have ever occupied 14 my mind!” “Well, then, my dear Dr. Ferney,” said her 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 discoveries——” “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 exceeding mournfulness and with corresponding looks. “It almost makes me regret, Lady Saxon- dale, that I lent myself to that transaction which nineteen years ago——” “For God’s sake,” muvmured ‘the unhappy ECORNICLOO CS (E©)