As it were an echo, came the word "Poisoner!" from the lips of every one in the room. Olive, who had risen to her feet when her cousin flung away her hand, staggered back as if suddenly smitten.
Lady Dudgeon was the first to speak. "Surely, sir," she said, addressing herself to Dr. Whitaker, "there must be some terrible mistake in all this! The accusation just made by your patient can hardly be that of a man in his proper senses."
"I am afraid, madam," said Dr. Whitaker, very gravely, "that the accusation made by Mr. Kelvin is but too well founded. We have it on evidence which cannot be disputed that my patient has been the victim of an elaborate system of slow poisoning. Suspicion points in one direction, and in one only: in the direction indicated by my patient himself."
"It seems altogether incredible," urged her ladyship. "What possible motive could Miss Deane have for attempting so dreadful a crime?"
"Let Miss Deane answer you herself," said Olive.
She was standing as she had stood from the moment when her cousin hurled at her that terrible word. Everything was lost: she knew it but too well, and she nerved herself for one last supreme effort.
"Lady Dudgeon is curious to know my motive for doing that which I am said to have done. Her curiosity shall be satisfied. My motive was my love for Matthew Kelvin. He loved me once, or I dreamt that he did. A passing fancy on his part, perhaps--soon forgotten by him, but never by me. I have never ceased to love him, I would give my life for him at this moment. When I found how persistently his heart was set on Miss Lloyd, I thought--foolishly enough, no doubt--that if I could have him all to myself--if I could see him daily, hourly--if he were ill and I could nurse him--I might perhaps succeed in winning back the love which I could not believe had ever been wholly lost to me. He was taken ill, and I nursed him. But to think that I would have let him die--the man whom I loved with my whole heart and soul--is utterly absurd! I understood too well what I was about to fear any such catastrophe. I could bear to see him suffer, simply because I loved him so much, and wanted him so wholly and entirely to myself. But I would not have let him die. Your ladyship looks horrified. Be thankful, madam, that your affections move in a less erratic orbit--that yours is a heart whose equable pulsations could never be quickened as mine have been. But I--I was not born in the frigid zone. Love to me is existence itself--for what is life without love?"
"What a dreadful person! We might all have been murdered in our beds!" said Lady Dudgeon in a loud aside, as she felt in her pocket for her smelling-salts.
"Matthew!" said Olive, passionately, advancing a step nearer her cousin, "you have bid me begone, and I know that there is nothing left for me but to obey. All is over between us. I played for a heavy stake, and I have lost it. I leave you now, never to see you again. I go forth into the world--whither, I neither know nor care. Listen to these my last words--listen, and believe. I would shed my heart's blood for you. Had you died through me, I would have killed myself an hour afterwards. I never loved you more than at this moment. That love I shall carry with me. Nothing can deprive me of it. Time will soften the hardness of your judgment. Then sometimes you may think of me with a touch of the old kindness, and say to yourself, 'Her greatest fault was that she loved me not wisely, but too well.'"
Still keeping her eyes fixed on her cousin, but vouchsafing no glance to any one else, she moved slowly towards the door. She reached the threshold, and there for a moment she paused.