To punish her as she
deserved he allowed her to think herself guilty till his defence of
her began.
The prospect of a death on the gallows did not perturb Lady Shillito
in the least. She was perfectly certain that if found guilty her
beauty and station in life would avail to have the death penalty
commuted to a term of imprisonment which she would spend in the
Infirmary. Still, that would ruin her life pretty conclusively. She
would issue from prison a broken woman, whom in spite of her
wealth--if she retained any--no impossibly-faithful Colonel would
marry at the age of forty-five or fifty. So she followed the opening
hours of the trial with a dry mouth.
With the help of Rossiter and of many and minute researches David
got on the track of the consultation in Harley Street, the warning
given of the possible cancer. He found in Sir Grimthorpe's
laboratory sufficient strychnine to kill an army. He was privately
informed by the family doctor (who didn't want to press matters to
a tragedy) that although he fully believed Arbella capable of the
deed, she certainly had--so far as the doctor's prescriptions were
concerned--obtained nothing from him which could have killed her
husband, even if she had centupled the dose.
Lady Shillito appeared in the dock dressed as much as possible like
Mary, Queen of Scots on her trial; and was attended by a hospital
nurse with restoratives and carminatives.
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