ver worried is a nervous patient cured. There it is in a nutshell!
Come and see the Dispensary, ladies; the Dispensary and the kitchen
next!"

Once more, Miss Gwilt dropped behind the visitors, and waited
alone--looking steadfastly at the Room which the doctor had opened, and
at the apparatus which the doctor had unlocked. Again, without a word
passing between them, she had understood him. She knew, as well as if he
had confessed it, that he was craftily putting the necessary temptation
in her way, before witnesses who could speak to the superficially
innocent acts which they had seen, if anything serious happened. The
apparatus, originally constructed to serve the purpose of the doctor's
medical crotchets, was evidently to be put to some other use, of which
the doctor himself had probably never dreamed till now. And the chances
were that, before the day was over, that other use would be privately
revealed to her at the right moment, in the presence of the right
witness. "Armadale will die this time," she said to herself, as she went
slowly down the stairs. "The doctor will kill him, by my hands."

The visitors were in the Dispensary when she joined them. All the ladies
were admiring the beauty of the antique cabinet; and, as a necessary
consequence, all the ladies were desirous of seeing what was inside. The
doctor--after a preliminary look at Miss Gwilt--good-humoredly shook his
head. "There is nothing to interest you inside," he said. "Nothing but
rows of little shabby bottles containing the poisons used in medicine
which I keep under lock and key. Come to the kitchen, ladies, and honor
me with your advice on domestic matters below stairs." He glanced again
at Miss Gwilt as the company crossed the hall, with a look which said
plainly, "Wait here."

In another quarter of an hour the doctor had expounded his views on
cookery and diet, and the visitors (duly furnished with prospectuses)
were taking leave of him at the door. "Quite an intellectual treat!"
they said to each other, as they streamed out again in neatly dressed
procession through the iron gates. "And what a very superior man!"

The doctor turned back to the Dispensary, humming absently to himself,
and failing entirely to observe the corner of the hall in which Miss
Gwilt stood retired. After an instant's hesitation, she followed him.
The assistant was in the room when she entered it--summoned by his
employer the moment before.

"Doctor," she said, coldl