Page:Anna Katharine Green - Leavenworth Case.djvu/297

Rh "Yes," I repeated, "the girl you have been hiding so long and so well is now beyond your control. Only her dead body remains, Mrs. Belden."

I shall never lose from my ears the shriek which she uttered, nor the wild, "I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it!" with which she dashed from the room and rushed up-stairs.

Nor that after-scene when, in the presence of the dead, she stood wringing her hands and protesting, amid sobs of the sincerest grief and terror, that she knew nothing of it; that she had left the girl in the best of spirits the night before; that it was true she had locked her in, but this she always did when any one was in the house; and that if she died of any sudden attack, it must have been quietly, for she had heard no stir all night, though she had listened more than once, being naturally anxious lest the girl should make some disturbance that would arouse me.

"But you were in here this morning?" said I.

"Yes; but I did n’t notice. I was in a hurry, and thought she was asleep; so I set the things down where she could get them and came right away, locking the door as usual."

"It is strange she should have died this night of all others. Was she ill yesterday?"

"No, sir; she was even brighter than common; more lively. I never thought of her being sick then or ever. If I had"

"You never thought of her being sick?" a voice here interrupted. "Why, then, did you take such pains to give her a dose of medicine last night?" And Q entered from the room beyond.

"I did n’t!" she protested, evidently under the supposition it was I who had spoken. "Did I, Hannah,