The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-03-30

There was little enough could do in such
a case. Anxious to do everything, the very
circumstances of the affair left me nearly pow
erless.
A charge of such a nature, of course, l
could not make out against DIR. Spencer with
out the amplest proof. If l limited suspl-
cion every one would at once set it down to
my professional prejudice; and if l could not
substantiate nv statement the doctor could
make me pay dearly for such SANDER utter
ed against him.
The only dependence seemed to be in Mrs.
Hurd. To her unbosomed myself freely.
| told her without reserve that believed DIR.
Spencer was killing his wife by slow poison,
and besought her to be constantly on the
watch to save the victim, and to discover
some proof by which we could fasten the
guilt upon him.
She smiled grimly and promised obedience.
gave her powerful antidote for the poison
/ suspected, and went home perturbed and
anxious in mind. did not sleep that night
and all the next day l was in high fever of
excitement A ring at the bell made me
tremble-a step on the gravel outside my Of
flee stopped my breath, and 1 hardly knew
what expected to hear, yet felt sure that
before slept L should hear something.
AND now must tell the story as it was
told to me.
after my visit to Clifton House. He looked
wretchedly, the nurse said; appeared gloomy
and depressed. Miss Merose came with him,
and was decorously sad over the death of her
sister. Women of her stamp always do
mourn to perfection. They neither overdo
nor underdo the thing, as women of feeling
are likely to do.
DIR. Spencer came at once to his wife'S
chamber. He thought she looked i'll, and pre-
q 1iaI OF hat ha
would go and fetch it.
"You are always ordering cordials for her."
said Mrs. Hurd, musingly. ''Why not take
something yourself? You look like ghostw
He eyed her keenly, but replied compos-
eddy.
II think will take some of the cordial
myself, for do not feel quite well. Alicia
dear, shall bring it here and drink your
health?''
Mrs. Spencer smiled sadly in assent-she
never disputed her husband-and he went
out. Presently he returned with two glasses.
Both contained liquid, colorless and odorless.
Mrs. Hurd was watching him with her heart
in her throat, for she told me, she felt that the
decisive moment had come There was
something in the gray pallor in the doctors
rigid face that told her of desperate purpose
in the mans soul.
He lifted the glass ON the right of the tray
and gave it to his wife.
Drink it, DEAR" he said, cit is a panacea
for all evils. l also am going to take glass
of it" and he pointed to glass still on the
tray.
Mrs. Spencer accepted it, and was putting
it to her lips, when Mrs. Hurd interrupted.
If you will bring her tumbler of water,
doctor; Mrs. Spencer complains that the cor
dial leaves bad taste in her mouth, and my
Old bones are so full of rheumatism that it
nearly kills me- tO on down SfairS
The doctor turned and bent on her a look
as If he would read her through. But she
kept her face passive. If he had any suspi-
clons her manner quieted them, and putting
down the glass he left the room. Then Mrs.
Hurd changed the position Of the glasses.
When he came back-anC he was gone but
moment-the nurse stood just exactly
where he had left her, and Mrs. Spencer was
lying back in her chair with her eyes closed.
Again he lifted the glass-this time it was
the one intended for himself-and placed it at
the lips of his wife. She drank the contents,
swallowed little OF the water he had brought
her and thanked him in her sad, sweet way.
Now for my own cordial" said he with af-
fected gayety. 81 indulge in something lit
tie stronger" and as he spoke he tossed off
the mixture.
SIT made me stone cold to my fingers ends
to see him do it," said Mrs. Hurd, relating
the circumstance to ME, ''but heaven is my
witness, felt not Single twinge of con,
science agured like this; if it was a simple
cordial, as he had said, it would do him no
harm. 1t it was poison his blood would be on
his own sinful head.''
He went to bed half an hour afterward.
complaining of fatigue In the morning thew
found him dead!
was called to the post mortem examina-
ton, and we discovered in the stomach of the
deceased sufficient quantity of the deadliest
poison known to modern science to kill halfa
dozen men.
My brother physicians agreed that the man
was insane, and had probably taken the dose
in one of his unsettled fits of mind. did not