Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

40 REYNOLDS’ WORKS body, and that the verdict attributed her death to apoplexy.- Now, Lady Saxondale,’”’ added the doctor, ‘‘ there is some- thing horribly and fearfully mysterious in the death of that woman.”’ “You astonish me, my dear Doctor 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 dissimulation. ‘‘ Could the un- happy woman have committed suicide? ”’ “Tf so, 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 instan- taneous to allow,her even a moment’s respite to conceal the ~ phial. So soon as one drop — one single drop of that colourless fluid — touched her throat lfe 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 root! ”’ ‘Tt was even so,’’ rejoined the doctor, in a mournful 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 possible means of accounting for an incident which would otherwise be utterly inexplicable — ”’ ‘“ Name that suspicion: what was it, Doctor Ferney? ”’ and for the second time on the evening of which we are speaking did Lady Saxondale’s voice sound hollow and sepulchral to her own ears. ‘“] dare not name that suspicion,’? murmured the phy- sician. ‘‘ My God! when I look at you, how can I possibly name it? ”’ ‘“ But you must, doctor, for I see that there is something 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 communi- cated the nature of the poison to some one else at Saxondale ) Gomicbookseco