had to make night into day in order to get the necessary things
ready in time.

So gradually they accustomed her to the idea of it, till at last one
day Madame Langai took her aside and lectured her solemnly as to the
duties of women in general and of women of rank in particular, pointing
out at the same time how much such women owed to their own families for
looking after and providing for them and expressing the hope that
Henrietta would be duly grateful to the end of her days to _her_
family--from all which she was able to gather that any opposition on her
part would not be tolerated for a moment.

The day was already fixed for the exchange of the bridal rings, but the
night before that day, Henrietta suddenly fell ill, and, what is more,
dangerously ill, so that they had to run off for the family physician
incontinently. The doctor was much struck by the symptoms of the illness
and the first thing he did was to make the patient swallow a lot of milk
and oil. Then he drove the servants headlong to the chemist's, and
descending into the kitchen closely examined every copper vessel there
by candle light, scolded the cook and the scullery maids till they were
in tears, and terrified Clementina by telling her she was the cause of
it all to the speechless confusion of the innocent creature. Not content
with this, he made his way at once to Mr. Demetrius's room and there
cross-examined everyone with the acerbity of an Old Bailey judge. What
had the young lady been in the habit of eating and drinking? They must
fetch what had been left over from her meals, he must see and examine
everything. What had she eaten yesterday evening? Preserves? Then what
sort of sugar was used, and where was the spoon? He insisted on seeing
everything.

"But doctor," whined old Lapussa, "you surely don't mean to say that the
child has been poisoned?"

"I do indeed, and with copper oxide too."

"How is that possible?"

"Why, simply because some of her food, preserve, for instance, has been
allowed to stand too long in a copper or silver vessel and copperas has
been developed."

The old man did not know enough of chemistry to understand how copperas
could be developed from silver, but he was seriously alarmed.

"I hope there's no danger?" said he.

"It is a good job you sent for me when you did," replied the doctor,
"for otherwise she would have been dead before morning. Copperas is a
very dangerous poison, and if it gets into one's foo