f a
rigid investigation; and the _post-mortem_ examination should, it was
arranged, take place early on the following morning.

"I have another and very painful duty to perform," continued Dr. Archer,
addressing Captain Everett. "I find that your son, Mr. Frederick Everett,
alone administered medicine and aliment to Mrs. Fitzhugh during her
illness. Strange, possibly wholly frenzied expressions, but which sounded
vastly like cries of remorse, irrepressible by a person unused to crime,
escaped him in my hearing just after the close of the final scene;
and--But perhaps, Captain Everett, you had better retire: this is
scarcely a subject"--

"Go on, sir," said the captain, over whose countenance a strange
expression--to use Dr. Archer's own words--had _flashed_; "go on: I am
better now."

"We all know," resumed Dr. Archer, "how greatly Mr. Frederick Everett
gains in wealth by his aunt's death; and that her decease, moreover, will
enable him to conclude the marriage to which she was so determinedly
opposed. I think, therefore, that, under all the circumstances, we shall
be fully justified in placing the young gentleman under such--I will not
say custody, but _surveillance_ as will prevent him either from leaving
the house, should he imagine himself suspected, or of destroying any
evidence which may possibly exist of his guilt, if indeed he be guilty."

"I entirely agree with you, Dr. Archer," exclaimed Mr. Hardyman, who had
listened with much excitement to the doctor's narrative; "and will, upon
my own responsibility, take the necessary steps for effecting the object
you have in view."

"Gentlemen," said Captain Everett, rising from his chair, "you will of
course do your duty; but I can take no part, nor offer any counsel, in
such a case; I must leave you to your own devices." He then left the
apartment.

He had been gone but a few minutes, when Frederick Everett, still in a
state of terrible excitement, entered the room, strode fiercely up to Dr.
Archer, and demanded how he dared propose, as the butler had just
informed him he had done, a dissection of his aunt's body.

"I will not permit it," continued the agitated young man: "I am master
here, and I say it shall not be done. What new horror would you
evoke? Is it not enough that one of the kindest, best of God's
creatures, has perished, but _another_ sacrifice must--What do I say?
Enough that I will not permit it. I have seen similar cases-very
similar cases in--