Devlin: "There were other reasons for preventing the marriage than your wish that Richard Carton should marry your daughter?"
Mr. Dowsett: "There were."
Devlin: "What were they?"
Mr. Dowsett: "If he married Lizzie Melladew, I should no longer enjoy the income I had received for so many years. I looked upon it as mine. I could not live without it. We should have been beggared--disgraced as well. I had forged my ward's name to bills, and if he married out of my family there would have been exposure, and I might have found myself in a felon's dock. If he married my daughter this would not occur. I was safe so long as I could keep my hold upon him."
Devlin: "Did your wife and daughter know this?"
Mr. Dowsett: "My daughter knew nothing of it. My wife suspected it."
Devlin: "Did she know that you contemplated murder?"
Mr. Dowsett: "She did not."
Devlin: "Why did you give Richard Carton a sleeping draught on that night?"
Mr. Dowsett: "In order that he might sleep soundly, and not discover that I left the house late."