"Eh! How do I know? Everyone—the servants, the doctor."

"No danger. And suppose they did suspect?"

"They would make examinations, Bertha; they would make a minute scrutiny."

She gave a smile of the most perfect security.

"They might examine and experiment as much as they pleased, they would find nothing. Do you think I am such a fool as to use arsenic?"

"For Heaven's sake, hush!"

"I have procured one of those poisons which are as yet unknown, and which defy all analysis; one of which many doctors—and learned ones, too—could not even tell the symptoms!"

"But where did you get this—this—"

He dared not say, "poison."

"Who gave you that?" resumed he.