I have sat up
all the night through, sir, times and often, when he was ill, and have
heard Barlingford church clock strike every hour of the long night; and
O, if I had known that this could ever come to him, I should have wished
him dead in the little crib where he lay and seemed so innocent. I tell
you, sir, it can't be true! His father and mother had been respected and
looked up to in Barlingford for many a year,--his grandfather and
grandmother before them. There isn't a name that stands better in those
parts than the name of Sheldon. Do you think such a man would poison his
friend?"
"_I_ said nothing about poison, Mrs. Woolper," said Valentine, sternly.
This woman had known all, and had held her tongue, like the rest, it
seemed. To Valentine there was unutterable horror in the thought that a
cold-blooded murder could be thus perpetrated in the sight of several
people, and yet no voice be raised to denounce the assassin.
"And this is our modern civilization!" he said to himself. "Give me the
desert or the jungle. The sons of Bowanee are no worse than Mr. Sheldon,
and one might be on one's guard against them."
Nancy Woolper looked at him aghast. He had said nothing about poison!
What, then--had she betrayed her master?
He saw that she had known, or strongly suspected, the worst in the case
of Tom Halliday, and that she would easily be influenced to do all he
wanted of her.
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