alis, ordered perhaps in a larger quantity
than usual. At the second shop he visited, the chemist laughed. "Why,
doctor," he said, "have you forgotten your own prescription?" After
this, the prescription was asked for, and produced. It was on the paper
used by the doctor--paper which had his address printed at the top, and
a notice added, telling patients who came to consult him for the second
time to bring their prescriptions with them. Then, there followed in
writing: "Tincture of Digitalis, one ounce"--with his signature at the
end, not badly imitated, but a forgery nevertheless. The chemist noticed
the effect which this discovery had produced on the doctor, and asked if
that was his signature. He could hardly, as an honest man, have asserted
that a forgery was a signature of his own writing. So he made the true
reply, and asked who had presented the prescription. The chemist called
to his assistant to come forward. "Did you tell me that you knew, by
sight, the young lady who brought this prescription?" The assistant
admitted it. "Did you tell me she was Miss Helena Gracedieu?" "I did."
"Are you sure of not having made any mistake?" "Quite sure." The chemist
then said: "I myself supplied the Tincture of Digitalis, and the young
lady paid for it, and took it away with her. You have had all the
information that I can give you, sir; and I may now ask, if you can
throw any light on the matter." Our good friend thought of the poor
Minister, so sorely afflicted, and of the famous name so sincerely
respected in the town and in the country round, and said he could not
undertake to give an immediate answer. The chemist was excessively
angry. "You know as well as I do," he said, "that Digitalis, given in
certain doses, is a poison, and you cannot deny that I honestly believed
myself to be dispensing your prescription. While you are hesitating to
give me an answer, my character may suffer; I may be suspected myself."
He ended in declaring he should consult his lawyer. The doctor went
home, and questioned his servant. The man remembered the day of Miss
Helena's visit in the afternoon, and the intention that she expressed of
waiting for his master's return. He had shown her into the parlor which
opened into the consulting-room. No other visitor was in the house at
that time, or had arrived during the rest of the day. The doctor's own
experience, when he got home, led him to conclude that Helena had gone
into the consulting-room. He