The morning call., 1895-01-20

"There you are" he said, as he gave
them to the errand-boy. Mrs. Thirdly,
No. 10 Crescent"
The errand-boy went off with the bot
''Now, then" said the assistant to his
friend, "Im your man."
"
In a bedroom at No. Is Crescent Miriam
Thirdly lay asleep. She was not very i'll,
but she undoubtedly had cold, and she
took care of it. The doctor ordered a
draught and some liniment. The two bot
ties one with the scarlet poison label, stood
now on the mantelpiece, side by side. A
coal fire lit up the room in flashes now and
then. The room was untidy. The woman
was pretty.
In the adjoining sitting-room was her
husband, Andrew Thirdly, a man with a
weakish chin and intelligent eyes.
They had been married rather less than
year, and had married for love. AS far as
mere fidelity was concerned neither had
the least suspicion of the other, or the least
educated, and their opinions differed very
little. The cause of their mutual detesta-
ton of each other commenced IN their IN
compatibility of temper, leading them to
disagree upon very many points OF no I'M
portance at all, and in consequence OF the
disagreement to lose sight of the utter I'M
| importance of its objects 1t was a trivial
cause for tragedy. 1t could be explained,
too, to some extent, by the condition of
their health and circumstances. They were
much poorer than they had expected to be-.
He was an electrical engineer, with some
ambition and hatred of routine work.
Almost Immediately after his marriage he
had lost a well-paid appointment entirely
through his own fault and now held an
IF 11o11cb loss al oil bar
he nor she had, recently, been in the best
of health. The tragedy of their hatred for
| each other had in its origin nothing that
| was romantic.
Yet, as he sat and stared straight before
him, he knew that he had reached a dan
| gerous point. A few hours ago she had
said to him something which he found it
| impossible to get over. Her words kept
coming back to him with quite singular
clearness, so that he could fancy even that
| he heard her speaking then. She had in
| tended her words to be cruel; and she had
no clear notion how horribly cruel they
were. She had also intended them to pro-
| woke an angry answer; she had been
rather surprised when she noticed that he
| turned white and made no answer at all.
| AS he thought of this thing it seemed to
him that woman who could speak of him
and to him like that must live with him
no longer. No, even to look at her and talk
to her would be an unbearable torture.
AT this moment he heard her calling him
| by name. She was quite unconscious OF
| the effect that those words had had upon
him, and had probably forgotten that she
| had ever used them. He entered the bed
room and lit a candle. She was lying with
her face turned away from him. f'Giye me
a dose of that medicine she said.
He raised his eyes. On the mantelpiece
before him were two bottles similar in
size and the color of their contents. dis
similar in the labels. Andrew Thirlby's
eyes, were caught and fascinated by the
word poison" in scarlet. He tried to an
swer his wife. Eyes" he said, II will
fetch glass" He was almost astonished
by the huskiness of his voice; his lips anC
throat had become suddenly drv.
He went into the dining-room and tool
glass from the sideboard. He had onlI
to do. Intentionally what would be consid
cred by every one an instance of an awfn
but unfortunately not uncommon mistake
The jury would offer their sympathy the
| Coroner would call attention to the fac
that poison should always be put up il
blue-rlbbed bottles, SO that even in the
dark such mistakes would be impossible
and he would be free, and the woman ht
hated would be dead.
| lie made no attempt whatever to resis
the impulse. On the contrary, when reason
and conscience tried to protest, he deliber
ately refused to listen. With a fairly
steady hand he poured into the glass a full
dose from the bottle labeled Poison" III,
carried it to the bedside and touched hi
wife lightly on the shoulder. Here" h.
said, this is what you want" She hal
| sat up IN bed, opened very sleepy eyes ant