Page:The Life of Mary Baker Eddy (Wilbur).djvu/300

258 Highlands. That he arrived home at the hour stated does not rest on Mrs. Eddy’s statement alone but is attested by Miranda R. Rice under oath, who was at 8 Broad street with Mrs. Eddy, waiting to hear particulars from Mr. Eddy of his new class.

As to the detective’s testimony that he had seen Sargeant at Mr. Eddy’s door, Mrs. Eddy wrote at the time:

The only time this man Sargeant came to our threshold, to our knowledge, was the day the detective came to arrest Mr. Eddy; he preceded the detective a few minutes and had just been ordered from the door by Mr. Eddy because of his impertinent remarks, when the detective who had him in attendance rang at the front door and himself admitted Sargeant into the house.

Though the state removed the detective, and Sargeant and Collier subsequently went to jail on other charges, this case, which was built up on perjuries and which collapsed without a hearing, evidently had great villainy in it and it should have been made to appear. Mrs. Eddy never held Daniel Spofford directly responsible for involving her husband in the wicked conspiracy and causing him to appear at the bar of justice in the company of thieves and women of ill-repute. At most she believed him blindly acquiescent in a design which it was never in his heart to originate. But she did point out, without naming, one who had motive and character for the instigation of the dastardly intrigue.