that tender and confiding expression which so often redeems the
plainest face and makes beauty doubly attractive.

"Dr. Holmes does not know you," I hastened to say; "I do, and utterly
repel for you any such insinuation. In return, will you tell me if
there is any one in the world whom you can call your enemy? Though the
chief mystery is how so deadly and unusual a poison could have gotten
into a clean glass, without the knowledge of yourself or the nurse,
still it might not be amiss to know if there is any one, here or
elsewhere, who for any reason might desire your death."

The surprise in the child-like eyes increased rather than diminished.

"I don't know what to say," she murmured. "I am so insignificant and
feeble a person that it seems absurd for me to talk of having an
enemy. Besides, I have none. On the contrary, every one seems to love
me more than I deserve. Haven't you noticed it, Mrs. Dayton?"

The landlady smiled and stroked the sick girl's hand.

"Indeed," she replied, "I have noticed that people love you, but I
have never thought that it was more than you deserved. You are a dear
little thing, Addie."

And though she knew and I knew that the "every one" mentioned by the
poor girl meant ourselves, and possibly her unknown employer, we were
none the less touched by her words. The more we studied the mystery,
the deeper and less explainable did it become.

And indeed I doubt if we should have ever got to the bottom of it, if
there had not presently occurred in my patient a repetition of the
same dangerous symptoms, followed by the same discovery, of poison in
the glass, and the same failure on the part of herself and nurse to
account for it. I was aroused from my bed at midnight to attend her,
and as I entered her room and met her beseeching eyes looking upon me
from the very shadow of death, I made a vow that I would never cease
my efforts till I had penetrated the secret of what certainly looked
like a persistent attempt upon this poor girl's life.

I went about the matter deliberately. As soon as I could leave her
side, I drew the nurse into a corner and again questioned her. The
answers were the same as before. Addie had shown distress as soon as
she had swallowed her usual quantity of medicine, and in a few minutes
more was in a perilous condition.

"Did you hand the glass yourself to Addie?"

"I did."

"Where did you take it from?"

"From the place where you left it--the little stand on