did the
week before. And besides all that, though Sir Murray smiles, and
pretends to talk pleasant to the poor dear, suffering angel, than whom a
better woman never lived, he hates her dreadfully, and more and more
every day."

"And how long has this been going on?" said Mrs Norton, with a faint
smile.

"Weeks now, ma'am," said Jane. "But I see you don't believe me."

"I believe you to be a good, affectionate girl, Jane," said Mrs Norton,
"and that you love your mistress; but this seems to me to be a fearful
and perfectly unfounded suspicion--one that I am glad, for every one's
sake, that you have hinted to no one else. Think of the absurdity of
the thing. This has, you say, been going on for weeks; and yet, you
see, your mistress is not poisoned yet."

"No, ma'am, not yet," said Jane, meaningly.

"Well, then, my good girl, how do you account for that?"

"Because, ma'am," said Jane, in a whisper, "she's never taken any of the
medicine but once."

"How? What do you mean?" exclaimed Mrs Norton.

"I've managed to get the stuff made up at two places, ma'am," whispered
Jane. "One lot's fetched by the footman from one chemist's, at
Marshton, and I get the gardener to go to another chemist's for the
other. I only had to send the doctor's paper, and the medicine comes
just like what Sir Murray knows is sent for."

"Well," exclaimed Ada, impatiently.

"Well, 'm," whispered Jane, "that which her ladyship takes I keep locked
up, and that which stands on the dressing-table gets poured out of the
window, a little at a time, upon the flower-beds."

Ada Norton sat silently gazing at Jane for a few minutes before she
spoke.

"Jane," she said, "this is a fearful charge!" and she shuddered. "I
must think about it, and before many hours I will come over to the
Castle, and see either Sir Murray or Lady Gernon. Do not be afraid; I
will not implicate you in any way. I must see Mr Elstree, and I will
try to make some plan--to arrange something definite; but your words
have confused me--almost taken away my breath. The thing seems so
monstrous, and even now I cannot believe it true! But I should not feel
that I had done my duty if, after what you have said, I did not take
some steps; so rest assured that I will do something, and at once."

Jane rose to go, and, trembling and excited, Ada Norton sat for some
hours, pondering whether she should ask her husband's advice, ending by
putting it off till the next day, wh