Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/479

Rh "What was?" I asked.

She continued to stare vacantly at me. "What I have been doing," she said.

Her expression appeared to me assumed. I was convinced that she was acting. I felt the weight of the responsibility which had devolved on me.

"Miss Mason," I said, as collectedly as I could, "your tragical attitude seems to me an unbecoming affectation. I wish you to be plain with me. My sudden entrance has overcome you, and interfered with your plans. Explain to me what you were doing?" Her influence over me was still so great, that I could not word what I had to say more explicitly. She replied, quietly:

"I do not understand you."

This revolted me. I continued, sternly:

"When I opened the door, you were on the point of administering to Jenny Brewster something which, in your agitation, you have spilled. Whatever this was, you were giving it contrary to the doctor's directions. I wish to know what it was."

A gleam of intelligence crossed her face. She moved, as if to posses herself of the phial, but I was nearer the stand, and laid my hand on it firmly.

"Why—why—Miss Denby," she said, beginning to shiver hysterically—"what do you mean?"

"I mean that you are to tell me what you were attempting to give Jenny Brewster, and why?" I know my voice was cruel. She broke down, and began to sob.

"It was the new medicine," she said, agitatedly. "It should have been given precisely at three. I reproach myself bitterly for being behindhand. I was so distracted—so unhappy—"

There was a shudder in her voice.

"The new medicine!" I repeated. "Has the doctor been here through the night?"

"He was here at twelve. He was called somewhere out of town, and stopped on the way. He found some change in Jenny, and altered the medicine."

"He made it up himself?" I asked, glancing at the little ornamented phial and its contents.

"Yes"—she seemed to read my suspicion—"I got my ammonia bottle, as there was nothing in the room to contain the mixture."

It was horrible to have it so, but her words sounded false to me. I did not believe her. My position was painful. In face of such an explanation, it would have been inhuman to have raised an alarm. I wished to send for the doctor on some pretext, to have the story verified, but I was afraid to leave her alone with Jenny while I went to call Nancy, or to send her to do so, lest, if my sus-