The doctor now thought it expedient to make a few inquiries relative to the case which was about to engage his attention.
"What poison has the young woman taken?" he asked.
"Arsenic," was the reply: "for I found the paper which had contained it."
"And how long ago?"
"Ten minutes before I knocked at your door."
"Has there been any vomiting?"
"I did not delay a single moment in hastening to fetch you, after the unhappy creature took the poison; and therefore I am unable to answer that question."
The physician remained silent; and in a few minutes the coach stopped at a house in South Moulton Street.
The door was opened by a servant-girl; and Rainford led the physician to a bed-room on the second floor, whither the servant-girl followed them.
By the light of a candle placed upon a chest of drawers, Dr. Lascelles beheld a young female of great beauty, and with no other garment on than her night-dress, writhing in excruciating agonies upon the bed. From the reply given by the servant-girl to a question put by the doctor, it appeared that the young lady had been seized with violent vomiting the moment after Tom Rain had left to procure medical aid; and Lascelles accordingly proceeded to adopt the usual treatment which is pursued in such cases.[[1]]