was one of that party of attorneys whom Julius
Lethwaite had got together to meet our hero,
and who had laughed at his foreign accent as did
the rest. The information brought by this
asthmatic gentleman was not altogether satisfactory.
He knew of no will. If there was one, it
must be among Miss Carrington's papers that
had been in her own possession. There certainly
was none among the documents in the possession
of the firm which he represented. At the proper
time it would be necessary to make an examination
of the deceased lady's papers with a view to
the discovery of a will. In the event of no such
document being found, her property would go
to her next of kin.

A new source of uneasiness became revealed
to Gilbert Penmore as those last words dropped
casually from the attorney's lips. To the best
of Gilbert's knowledge, he himself and his own
immediate relatives would turn out to be the
persons thus alluded to, and if thus a benefit
should actually accrue to him from Miss Carrington's
death, here would be more ground at once
for those suspicions which had been insinuated
by Jane Cantanker; a new link, in short, in that
horrible chain which circumstances seemed to be
winding around his poor Gabrielle, encroaching
like the coils of a serpent on her freedom, and
even—on what besides?—on her life?

Oh! truly it might be so—who could tell?
Who could say whither all these cruel indications
were tending, or in what direction they pointed?

This new feature in the case did really seem to
be all that was wanting to complete it as a piece
of the strongest circumstantial evidence that
could be conceived. Here was additional motive
for a crime brought forward in the shape of profit
to be obtained by its commission. Before this
new element had been introduced, the motive
which might have been alleged was purely of a
vindictive character, but now here was a distinct
advantage to be gained by the death of this
unfortunate lady. Her life stood between a certain
person and gain, and that life had been successfully
assailed by a dose of poison. Such proof
against the person to be profited by the death was
damning, and would require counter-evidence of
the most powerful kind to set it aside.

And where was such counter-evidence to come
from? Before this supposition of guilt which
was set up against Gabrielle could be got rid of,
some other theory would, of necessity, have to be
put forward. The quantity of opium found in
the post-mortem examination, how was it to be
accounted for? By some means or other that
amount of poison had been conveyed into the
system of the deceased lady. Some person or
other had been instrumental in introducing that
poison; now who was that person? Who had
anything to gain by the lady's death? Who had
had access to her? Who had had the opportunity
of administering the deleterious drug? Was it
her servant? So far from gaining by her
mistress's death, the woman would be a great loser by
it. Had Miss Carrington made a will, she would
in all probability have left some considerable sum
as a provision for one who had so long been
dependent upon her. But there seemed every
reason to suppose that there was no will, and in
that case Jane Cantanker would not inherit a
single farthing.

The only other theory that was deserving of a
moment's consideration was that of self-destruction.
Was this poison administered by the lady's
own hand? There was not one tittle of evidence
in support of this view of the case. There had
been nothing in the bearing or conversation of
the late Miss Carrington to indicate that she had
ever had such a thing in contemplation. There
was nothing in her circumstances, pecuniary or
otherwise, to lead her to it. She had never been
heard to express herself at any time as being
weary of life, or having any sorrow pressing on
her, the only remedy for which would be death.

No doubt, in the course of the inquiries which
would now be set on foot, there would be every
attempt made to ascertain whether Miss Carrington
had had any quantity of the poison by which
she had died, in her possession, or whether she
had recently purchased some at any of the
chemists' shops in the neighbourhood. If none
could be found, nor any indication gained of such
purchase having been made, the supposition of
her having died by her own hand would be very
much weakened, and the opposite theory, that
the poison had been administered by some one
else, would be proportionately strengthened.

And then would return the old question, who
was that some one else? with the old difficulty
of finding any satisfactory answer to it. That
question came back from time to time in a sort
of regular rotation to Gilbert's mind, and still he
could make nothing of it. All through that
night, while Gabrielle slept the sleep of pure
exhaustion, he kept weary watch, and sought, as
best he might, to reduce this chaos of monotonous
thought which racked his brain, to some sort of
order. It was a terrible night. Most of us have
known something sufficiently like it to give us an
idea, though a faint one, of what the poor fellow
went through.

There is luckily a limit to our powers of endurance,
and when the morning dawned, and showed
him that sweet innocent face beside him, he said
to himself, "It cannot be but that she will be
taken care of, and brought through this and every
other trouble, to happiness;" and with that
thought, and a certain uplifting of his heart with
which it is not for us to meddle, he fell into a
quiet sleep.

Such seasons of refreshment come to us from
time to time, even in the midst of our worst
troubles, and give us force with which to endure
their renewed attacks.

That night Jane Cantanker kept a double
watch—a watch on the living and the dead.
She sat, indeed, by the bedside of her dead
mistress, but it was with the door of the room partly
open; so that the slightest noise in the house,