"
Even Mrs. Lecount's self-possession was shaken by that discovery. She
was not prepared to see her own darkest forebodings--the unacknowledged
offspring of her hatred for Magdalen--realized as she saw them realized
now. The suicide-despair in which the poison had been procured; the
suicide-purpose for which, in distrust of the future, the poison had
been kept, had brought with them their own retribution. There the bottle
lay, in Magdalen's absence, a false witness of treason which had never
entered her mind--treason against her husband's life!
With his hand still mechanically pointing at the table Noel Vanstone
raised his head and looked up at Mrs. Lecount.
"I took it from the cupboard," she said, answering the look. "I took
both bottles out together, not knowing which might be the bottle I
wanted. I am as much shocked, as much frightened, as you are."
"Poison!" he said to himself, slowly. "Poison locked up by my wife in
the cupboard in her own room." He stopped, and looked at Mrs. Lecount
once more. "For _me?_" he asked, in a vacant, inquiring tone.
"We will not talk of it, sir, until your mind is more at ease," said
Mrs. Lecount. "In the meantime, the danger that lies waiting in this
bottle shall be instantly destroyed in your presence.
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