or the
first time since she had received the letter. Once more she went to the
window, and looked out. It was only for a moment. She turned away again,
with a sudden contempt for herself. "What a fool I am!" she said--and
took up the open letter.

She looked at it, and put it down again. "Why should I read it," she
asked herself, "when I know what is in it, without reading?"

Some framed woodcuts from the illustrated newspapers were hung on the
walls. One of them represented a scene of rescue from shipwreck. A
mother embracing her daughter, saved by the lifeboat, was among the
foreground groups. The print was entitled, "The Mercy of Providence."
Mrs. Farnaby looked at it with a moment's steady attention. "Providence
has its favourites," she said; "I am not one of them."

After thinking a little, she went into her bedroom, and took two papers
out of her dressing-case. They were medical prescriptions.

She turned next to the chimneypiece. Two medicine-bottles were placed
on it. She took one of them down--a bottle of the ordinary size, known
among chemists as a six-ounce bottle. It contained a colourless liquid.
The label stated the dose to be "two table-spoonfuls," and bore, as
usual, a number corresponding with a number placed on the prescription.
She took up the prescription. It was a mixture of bi-carbonate of soda
and prussic acid, intended for the relief of indigestion. She looked at
the date, and was at once reminded of one of the very rare occasions on
which she had required the services of a medical man. There had been a
serious accident at a dinner-party, given by some friends. She had eaten
sparingly of a certain dish, from which some of the other guests had
suffered severely. It was discovered that the food had been cooked in
an old copper saucepan. In her case, the trifling result had been a
disturbance of digestion, and nothing more. The doctor had prescribed
accordingly. She had taken but one dose: with her healthy constitution
she despised physic. The remainder of the mixture was still in the
bottle.

She considered again with herself--then went back to the chimneypiece,
and took down the second bottle.

It contained a colourless liquid also; but it was only half the size of
the first bottle, and not a drop had been taken. She waited, observing
the difference between the two bottles with extraordinary attention. In
this case also, the prescription was in her possession--but it was not
the original. A