The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1872-03-14
Or Snancer ratnrned home the morn


looked wretchedly, the nurse said; ap-
peared gloomy and depressed. Miss
Melrose came with him, and was decor
ously sad at the death of her sister.
Women of her stamp always do mourn
to perfection. They never overdo or
underdo the thing. as women of feeling
are likely to DO.
DR.. Spencer came at once to his wife
chamber He thought she looked i'll, and
prescribed a cordial at once, saying
that he would go and fetch it himself.
you are always ordering cordials for
her, said Mrs. Hurd. musingly. why
not take something yourself? You look
like ghost"
He eyed her very keeuIy, but replied
composedly
Il think | will take some of the cor
dial myself, for I do not feel quite well
Alicia, dsar, shall | bring it here and drink
your health?''
Mrs. Spencer smiled sadly in assent
she never disputed her husband he
went out. Presently he returned with
two glasses. Both contained liquid, col
orless and Inodorous. Mrs Hurd was
watching him with her heart in her
throat, for as she told me she felt that
the decisive moment had come. There
was something in the gray palor in the
1ootor'c rio;1 e., tbat toIJ bor 60, Joo
perate purpose in the mans soul.
IF you will bring her a tumbler Of
water. doctor; Mrs. Spencer complains
that the cordial leaves bad taste in her
mouth. and my old bones are so full OF
rhematism that it nearly kills me to go
down stairs
The doctor turned and bent on her a
look as if he would read her through
But she kept her face impassive. If he
had any suspicious her manner quoted
them. and putting down the two glasses,
he left the room. Then Mrs Huld chang
ed the position of the glasses.
When he came back-and he was
gone but a moment-the nurse stood Just
exactly where he had left her, and Mrs.
Spencer lay back in her char with her
eyes open.
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 a little of
the water he had brought her, and thank
ed hum in her sad, sweet way.
"Now for my own cordial" said he,
with affected gayety. L INDUCED my
self in something little stronger" and
as he spoke he tossed off the mixture.
1T made me stone cold to my fingers
ends to see him to it,, said Mrs.
Hurd, reiatingathe circumstance to me.
but Heaven is my witness, [ felt not a
single tWinge Of conscience. | argued
like this: ii it was simple cordial as he
had said, it would do him no harm. Ii
it was poison. his blood would be on his
own head"
He went to bed in half an hour after
ward complaining of fatigue In the
morning they found him dead.
was called to the post-mortem ex-
animation, and we discovered in the
stomach of the deceased a sufficient
quantity of the deadliest poison Known
to modern science, to kill half 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 dispute them, but be-
fore Mrs. Hurd told her story had my
own theory in regard to bis death.
There was no public exposure how
ever. Mrs. Hurd and [ agreed that It
would profit no one to make the affair
public: and so we kept our own coun-
sci.
Miss Melrose, in spite of my convic-
ton that she had been an active partv
IN the conspiracy against Mrs. Spencer S
life, could not help pitying her. Such a
miserable, worn and haggard face as hers
L never have seen; and when they buried
DIR. Spencer she was confined TO her
chamber with brain fever.
L attended her in her illness, but
though she recovered her health. she
never was herself again. She was harm
less maniac, whose delight was in gather
ing flowers and decorating the doctor $
grave with them.
She is living still, and she still gathers
flowers and lays them on his grave, slug
ing to herself meanwhile in low incan-
tatiou which no one pretends to under
stand
Not until Mrs. Spencer had been MANY
years my wife, and the faithful Mrs. lIurd
slept under the violets. did Alicia ever
know the peridity of her former hus-
band
And when [ told her, alter the first
shock was ever, she crept into my arms
and whispered
But if it had not been For James crime
[ should not have found you, Herbert.
So good sometimes comes from evil"
|
scene In a grocery store. Euter boy,
who asks ssHa,-o 49,,