glad to find, would not believe for a
moment in his wife's guilt. I watched the looks and movements of Jackson
attentively--a scrutiny which he, now aware of my vocation, by no means
appeared to relish.

"Pray," said I, suddenly addressing Riddet, the woman-servant--"pray,
how did it happen that you had no soap in such a house as this yesterday
evening?"

"No soap!" echoed the woman with a stare of surprise. "Why"--

"No--no soap," hastily broke in her master with loud and menacing
emphasis. "There was not a morsel in the house. I bought some afterwards
in Farnham."

The cowed and bewildered woman slunk away. I was more than satisfied;
and judging by Jackson's countenance, which changed beneath my look to
the color of the lime-washed wall against which he stood, he surmised
that I was.

My conviction, however, was not evidence, and I felt that I should need
even more than my wonted good fortune to bring the black crime home to
the real perpetrator. For the present, at all events, I must keep
silence--a resolve I found hard to persist in at the examination of the
accused wife, an hour or two afterwards, before the county magistrates.
Jackson had hardened himself to iron, and gave his lying evidence with
ruthless self-possession. He had _not_ desired Mrs. Rogers to purchase
sulphuric acid; had _not_ received any from her. In addition also to his
testimony that she and her husband were always quarrelling, it was
proved by a respectable person that high words had passed between them
on the evening previous to the day the criminal offence was committed,
and _that_ foolish, passionate expressions had escaped her about wishing
to be rid of such a drunken wretch. This evidence, combined with the
medical testimony, appeared so conclusive to the magistrates that spite
of the unfortunate woman's wild protestations of innocence, and the
rending agony which convulsed her frame, and almost choked her
utterance, she was remanded to prison till that day week, when, the
magistrates informed her, she would be again brought up for the merely
formal completion of the depositions, and be then fully committed on the
capital charge.

I was greatly disturbed, and walked for two or three hours about the
quiet neighborhood of Farnham, revolving a hundred fragments of schemes
for bringing the truth to light, without arriving at any feasible
conclusion. One only mode of procedure seemed to offer, and that but
dimly, a hope of success. It