“There was silence in the court for a few moments.  Mr. Hazeldene seemed to every one there present to be labouring under some terrible moral doubt.  He looked very pale and wretched, and twice attempted to speak before he at last said in scarcely audible tones: 

“’No; there were no financial difficulties of any sort.  My wife had an independent fortune of her own—­she had no extravagant tastes—­’

“‘Nor any friend you at any time objected to?’ insisted the coroner.

“‘Nor any friend, I—­at any time objected to,’ stammered the unfortunate young man, evidently speaking with an effort.

“I was present at the inquest,” resumed the man in the corner, after he had drunk a glass of milk and ordered another, “and I can assure you that the most obtuse person there plainly realized that Mr. Hazeldene was telling a lie.  It was pretty plain to the meanest intelligence that the unfortunate lady had not fallen into a state of morbid dejection for nothing, and that perhaps there existed a third person who could throw more light on her strange and sudden death than the unhappy, bereaved young widower.

“That the death was more mysterious even than it had at first appeared became very soon apparent.  You read the case at the time, no doubt, and must remember the excitement in the public mind caused by the evidence of the two doctors.  Dr. Arthur Jones, the lady’s usual medical man, who had attended her in a last very slight illness, and who had seen her in a professional capacity fairly recently, declared most emphatically that Mrs. Hazeldene suffered from no organic complaint which could possibly have been the cause of sudden death.  Moreover, he had assisted Mr. Andrew Thornton, the district medical officer, in making a postmortem examination, and together they had come to the conclusion that death was due to the action of prussic acid, which had caused instantaneous failure of the heart, but how the drug had been administered neither he nor his colleague were at present able to state.

“’Do I understand, then, Dr. Jones, that the deceased died, poisoned with prussic acid?’

“‘Such is my opinion,’ replied the doctor.

“‘Did the bottle found in her satchel contain prussic acid?’

“‘It had contained some at one time, certainly.’

“’In your opinion, then, the lady caused her own death by taking a dose of that drug?’

“’Pardon me, I never suggested such a thing; the lady died poisoned by the drug, but how the drug was administered we cannot say.  By injection of some sort, certainly.  The drug certainly was not swallowed; there was not a vestige of it in the stomach.’

“‘Yes,’ added the doctor in reply to another question from the coroner, ’death had probably followed the injection in this case almost immediately; say within a couple of minutes, or perhaps three.  It was quite possible that the body would not have more than one quick and sudden convulsion, perhaps not that; death in such cases is absolutely sudden and crushing.’