His Other Wife: A Novel — page 317: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ARRAIGNED. 309 ‘‘Here Mr. Croft is safe from observation either from any person in or out of the chamber, unless one who ap- proached so near that he must be aware of the presence. ‘*But Mr. Croft has not counted upon the distinct re- flection which the bureau mirror makes of the whole scene in the angle to one standing ata certain point within the antechamber. ‘“Not chance, nor the calculations of an ignorant slave, but that mysterious Nemesis that tracks the criminal, places the old servant, Amy, just where this reflection meets and arrests her astonished sight. She sees her master empty a smaller potion than the one prescribed for the night-draught into the apothecary’s glass used for the purpose of measuring the dose accurately. This glass — he holds up to the light after pouring the medicine into it, and then Amy is struck by a wonderful transfiguration of her master’s subdued and gprief-stricken countenance into an expression of fiendish enjoyment of some idea which Amy’s subtle fancy connects with the physic he is about to administer to her mistress. This conclusion is presently justified, when the slave sees her master, Mr. Croft, take from the inner pocket of his vest a small pack- age, which he unwraps. ‘‘From a quantity of dark tissue paper Amy sees him take a little crystal flask, and then unstop and empty its contents into the glass with her mistress’ medicine. ‘‘At this moment the slave hears Mrs. Croft ask her husband: Eomicbooks: Eo