outside the window and poured the poison into the glass on the table.  Mrs Villiers had stated that the window was open all night, and from the position of the table near it—­nothing would be easier than for anyone to introduce the poison into the glass as asserted by Miss Marchurst.  On the other hand, the evidence of the detective Kilsip went to show that no marks were visible as to anyone having been at the window; and another thing which rendered Miss Marchurst’s story doubtful was the resemblance it had to a drama in which she had frequently acted, called ‘The Hidden Hand’.  In the last act of that drama poison was administered to one of the characters in precisely the same manner, and though of course such a thing might happen in real life, still in this case it was a highly suspicious circumstance that a woman like Miss Marchurst, who had frequently acted in the drama, should see the same thing actually occur off the stage.  Rejecting, then, as improbable the story of the hidden hand, seeing that the evidence was strongly against it, the next thing was to look into Miss Marchurst’s past life and see if she had any motive for committing the crime.  Before doing so, however, he would point out to them that Miss Marchurst was the only person in the room when the crime was committed.  The window in her own room and one of the windows in Mrs Villiers’ room were both locked, and the open window had a table in front of it, so that anyone entering would very probably knock it over, and thus awaken the sleepers.  On the other hand, no one could have entered in at the door, because they would not have had time to escape before the crime was discovered.  So it was clearly shown that Miss Marchurst must have been alone in the room when the crime was committed.  Now to look into her past life—­it was certainly not a very creditable one.  M. Vandeloup had sworn that she had been his mistress for over a year, and had taken the poison manufactured by himself out of his private desk.  Regarding M. Vandeloup’s motives in preparing such a poison he could say nothing.  Of course, he probably did it by way of experiment to find out if this colonial grown hemlock possessed the same poisonous qualities as it did in the old world.  It was a careless thing of him, however, to leave it in his desk, where it could be obtained, for all such dangerous matters should be kept under lock and key.  To go back, however, to Miss Marchurst.  It had been proved by M. Vandeloup that she was his mistress, and that they quarrelled.  She produced this poison, and said she would kill herself.  M. Vandeloup persuaded her to abandon the idea, and she subsequently left him, taking the poison with her.  She then went on the stage, and subsequently left it in order to live with Mrs Villiers as her companion.  All this time she still had the poison, and in order to prevent her losing it she put half of it into another bottle.  Now this looked very suspicious, as, if she had not intended to use it