Milly Darrell

by M. E. Braddon

rich enough,and had nothing to gain from anybody's death. So at last, after a dealof talk, grandmother gave her the stuff; and I heard her counting outmoney--I think it was a hundred pounds--and then she went away in therain.'

  I remembered that night upon which Mrs. Darrell had stayed out so longin the rain--the night that followed her stormy interview with AngusEgerton.

  I told Peter that he had done quite right in telling me this, andbegged him not to mention it to any one else until I gave himpermission to do so. I went back to Milly's room directly afterwards,and waited there for Mr. Hale's coming.

  While I was taking my breakfast, Mrs. Darrell came to make her usualinquiries. I ran into the dressing-room to meet her. While she wasquestioning me about the invalid, I saw her look at the table where themedicine had always been until that morning, and I knew that she missedthe bottle.

  After she had made her inquiries, she stood for a few momentshesitating, and then said abruptly,

  'I should like to see Mr. Hale when he comes this morning. I want tohear what he says about his patient. He will be here almostimmediately, I suppose; so I will stay in Milly's room till he comes.'

  She went into the bedroom, bent over the invalid for a few minutes,talking in a gentle sympathetic voice, and then took her place by thebedside. It was evident to me that she had suspected something from theremoval of the medicine, and that she intended to prevent my seeing Mr.Hale alone.

  'You took your medicine regularly last night, I suppose, Milly?' sheinquired presently, when I had seated myself at a little table by thewindow and was sipping my tea.

  'I don't think you gave me quite so many doses last night, did you,Mary?' said the invalid, in her feeble voice. 'I fancy you were moremerciful than usual.'

  'It was very wrong of Miss Crofton to neglect your medicine. Mr. Halewill be extremely angry when he hears of it.'

  'I do not think Milly will be much worse for the omission,' I answeredquietly.

  After this we sat silently waiting for the doctor's appearance. He camein about a quarter of an hour, and pronounced himself better pleasedwith his patient than he had been the night before. There had been amodification of the more troublesome symptoms of the fever towardsmorning.

  I told him of my omission to give the medicine.

  'That was very wrong,' he said.

  'Yet you see she had a better night, Mr. Hale. I suppose that medicinewas intended to modify those attacks of sickness from which she hassuffered so much?'

  'To prevent them altogether, if possible.'

  'That is very strange. It really appears to me that the medicine alwaysincreases the tendency to sickness.'

  Mr. Hale shook his head impatiently.

  'You don't know what you are talking about, Miss Crofton,' he said.

  'May I say a few words to you alone, if you please?'

  Mrs. Darrell rose, with a hurried anxious look.

  'What can you have to say to Mr. Hale alone, Miss Crofton?' she asked.

  'It is about herself, perhaps,' said the doctor kindly. 'I have toldher all along that she would be knocked up by this nursing; and now Idaresay she begins to find I am right.'

  'Yes,' I said, 'it is about myself I want to speak.'

  Mrs. Darrell went to one of the windows, and stood with her face turnedaway from us, looking out. I followed Mr. Hale into the dressing-room.

  I unlocked the wardrobe, took out the medicine-bottle, and told thedoctor my suspicions of the previous night. He listened to me withgrave attention, but with an utterly incredulous look.

  'A nervous fancy of yours, no doubt, Miss Crofton,' he said; 'however,I'll take the medicine back to my surgery and analyse it.'

  'I have something more to tell you, Mr. Hale.'

  'Indeed!'

  I repeated, word for word, what Peter had told me about Mrs. Darrell'svisit to his grandmother.

  'It is a very extraordinary business,' he said; 'but I cannot imaginethat Mrs. Darrell would be capable of such a hideous crime. What motivecould she have for such an act?'

  'I do not feel justified in speaking quite plainly upon that subject,Mr. Hale; but I have reason to know that Mrs. Darrell has a very bitterfeeling about her stepdaughter.'

  'I cannot think the thing you suspect possible. However, the medicineshall be analysed; and we will take all precautions for the future. Iwill send you another bottle immediately, in a sealed packet. You willtake notice that the seal is unbroken before you use the medicine.'

  He showed me his crest on a seal at the end of his pencil-case, andthen departed. The medicine came a quarter of an hour later in a sealedpacket. This time I brought the bottle into the sick-room, and placedit on the mantelpiece, where it was impossible for any one to touch it.

  When Mr. Hale came for his second visit, there was a grave and anxiouslook in his face. He was very well satisfied with the appearance of thepatient, however, and pronounced that there was a change for thebetter--slight, of course, but quite as much as could be expected in soshort a time. He beckoned me out of the room, and I went down-stairswith him, leaving Susan Dodd with Milly.

  'I am going to speak to Mrs. Darrell, and you had better come with me,'he said.

  She was in the library. Mr. Hale went in, and I followed him. She wassitting at the table, with writing materials scattered before her; butshe was not writing. She had a strange preoccupied air; but at thesight of Mr. Hale she rose suddenly, and looked at him with a deadlywhite face.

  'Is she worse?' she asked.

  'No, Mrs. Darrell; she is better,' he answered sternly. 'I find that wehave been the dupes of some secret enemy of this dear child's. Therehas been an attempt at murder going on under our very eyes. Poison hasbeen mixed with the medicine sent by me--a slow poison. Happily for usthe poisoner has been a little too cautious for the success of thecrime. The doses administered have been small enough to leave thechance of recovery. An accident awakened Miss Crofton's suspicions lastnight, and she very wisely discontinued the medicine. I have analysedit since she gave it me, and find that a certain portion of irritantpoison has been mixed with it.'

  For some moments after he had finished speaking Mrs. Darrell remainedsilent, looking at him fixedly with that awful death-like face.

  'Who can have done such a thing?' she asked at last, in ahalf-mechanical way.

  'You must be a better judge of that question than I,' answered Mr.Hale. 'Is there any one in this house inimical to your stepdaughter?'

  'No one, that I know of.'

  'We have two duties before us, Mrs. Darrell: the first, to protect ourpatient from the possibility of any farther attempt of this kind; thesecond, to trace the hand that has done this work. I shall telegraph toLeeds immediately for a professional nurse, to relieve Miss Crofton inthe care of the sick-room; and I shall communicate at once with thepolice, in order that this house may be placed under surveillance.'

  Mrs. Darrell said not a word, either in objection or assent, to this.She seated herself by the table again, and began trifling idly with thewriting materials before her.

  'You will do what is best, of course, Mr. Hale,' she said, after a longpause; 'you are quite at liberty to act in this matter according toyour own discretion.'

  'Thanks; it is a matter in which my responsibility entitles me to acertain amount of power. I shall telegraph to Dr. Lomond, asking him tocome down to-morrow. Whatever doubt you may entertain of my judgmentwill be dispelled when I am supported by his opinion.'

  'Of course; but I have not expressed any doubt of your judgment.'

  We left her immediately after this--left her sitting before the table,with her restless hands turning over the papers.

  The servant who went in search of her at seven o'clock that evening,when dinner was served, found her sitting there still, with a sealedletter lying on the table before her; but her head had fallen acrossthe cushioned arm of the chair--she had been dead some hours.

  There was a post-mortem examination and an inquest. Mrs. Darrell hadtaken poison. The jury brought in a
verdict of suicide while in a stateof unsound mind. The act seemed too causeless for sanity. Her strangeabsent ways had attracted the attention of the servants for some timepast, and the evidence of her own maid respecting her restlessness andirritability for the last few months influenced the minds of coronerand jury.

  The letter found lying on the table before her was addressed to AngusEgerton. He declined to communicate its contents when questioned aboutit at the inquest. Milly progressed towards recovery slowly but surelyfrom the hour in which I stopped the suspected medicine. The time camewhen we were obliged to tell her of her stepmother's awful death; butshe never knew the attempt that had been made on her own life, or theatmosphere of hatred in which she had lived.

  We left Thornleigh for Scarborough as