eart. Then he said to me, 'You can go downstairs, nurse: it is
all over.' He turned to Mr. Gale. 'Will you inquire if Mr. Macallan can
see us?' he said. I opened the door for Mr. Gale, and followed him out.
Doctor Jerome called me back for a moment, and told me to give him
the key of the door. I did so, of course; but I thought this also very
strange. When I got down to the servants' hall I found there was a
general feeling that something was wrong. We were all uneasy--without
knowing why.

"A little later the two doctors left the house. Mr. Macallan had been
quite incapable of receiving them and hearing what they had to say.
In this difficulty they had spoken privately with Mr. Dexter, as Mr.
Macallan's old friend, and the only gentleman then staying at Gleninch.

"Before bed-time I went upstairs to prepare the remains of the deceased
lady for the coffin. The room in which she lay was locked, the door
leading into Mr. Macallan's room being secured, as well as the door
leading into the corridor. The keys had been taken away by Mr. Gale. Two
of the men-servants were posted outside the bedroom to keep watch. They
were to be relieved at four in the morning--that was all they could tell
me.

"In the absence of any explanations or directions, I took the liberty of
knocking at the door of Mr. Dexter's room. From his lips I first heard
the startling news. Both the doctors had refused to give the usual
certificate of death! There was to be a medical examination of the body
the next morning."

There the examination of the nurse, Christina Ormsay, came to an end.

Ignorant as I was of the law, I could see what impression the evidence
(so far) was intended to produce on the minds of the jury. After first
showing that my husband had had two opportunities of administering the
poison--once in the medicine and once in the tea--the counsel for
the Crown led the jury to infer that the prisoner had taken those
opportunities to rid himself of an ugly and jealous wife, whose
detestable temper he could no longer endure.

Having directed his examination to the attainment of this object, the
Lord Advocate had done with the witness. The Dean of Faculty--acting in
the prisoner's interests--then rose to bring out the favorable side of
the wife's character by cross-examining the nurse. If he succeeded in
this attempt, the jury might reconsider their conclusion that the wife
was a person who had exasperated her husband beyond endurance. In t