“I went into the library and took a new magazine from the table, sat down and waited. Two o’clock, three o’clock, four o’clock and still no Chauncey. My eyes were glued to the clock; 4:15 and I heard a step. I half rose in my nervous expectancy and was appalled to see an arm uplifted over me as to strike. I threw up my right hand, which held the paper knife, to ward off the blow which seemed imminent.
“When I returned to consciousness I was lying on a couch by the window, my head was dizzy and the room was filled with imaginary voices. I wondered where I could be; then the occurrences of the previous night passed before me in rapid succession. I jumped up and the sight which met my eyes froze the blood in my veins.
“There weltering in his own life blood, with the steel paper knife buried in his throat, lay Horace.
“Words cannot express the agony of the hours that followed. I managed to arouse the servants and they called the police. They asked me to explain, but they could not get a satisfactory explanation from me. I did not know how it all happened and I was mentally incapable of doing myself justice in telling what I knew. My account was so confused that I was remanded to jail without bail, pending my trial. Oh, those awful days! Not a friend came to see me. While I was living in affluence I had scores of friends, but now that I was in trouble and disgrace there was not one of all the number that would take me by the hand.”
“But where was your husband all this time?”
“Yes, you may well ask.
“When they questioned him as to his whereabouts on that night, he proved an alibi. He gave a detailed account of his doings every hour of that night and, while it did not redound to his credit, it saved him from the penitentiary, and nearly sent me there.
“There were three reasons why I was cleared. Firstly, they could prove no motive for the act; secondly, it seemed impossible for a woman to strike such a powerful blow; and last, but not least, the efficiency of my counsel.
“He was an entire stranger to me. He had read the newspaper accounts of the affair, which stated, among other things, that I had no counsel, and his sympathies were aroused. He took up my case with no prospect of compensation.”