My heart seemed to stop beating. Old Taylor, then, was dead, and I sat
up in bed, staring straight before me.
For nearly a minute I did not speak. All the time I felt John's calm
gaze, puzzled, inquisitive, fixed upon me. I had gone through enough
unhappiness during these past weeks to last me a lifetime, but all that
I had endured would be as nothing by comparison with this. I could not
blind myself to one fact--I had poisoned old Taylor deliberately. Had
I, by some hideous miscalculation, the result of ignorance, overdosed
him, and brought his poor old life to a premature end? I might be
charged with manslaughter. Or worse!
Why! I might be convicted of murder. I might even be hanged! The grim
thought held me breathless.
And Vera--my thoughts fled to her at once--what would become of Vera?
Even if I were only imprisoned, and only for a short spell, Vera would
have none to look to for help, none to defend her. She would be at the
mercy of her persecutors! I think that thought appalled me even more
than the thought that I might be tried for manslaughter or murder.
"Oh," I said at last to John, "it's some mistake. The police have made
some grotesque blunder. You had better show them up, and I will talk to
them."
No blunder had been made, and I knew it.
I must say that I was surprised at the officers' extreme courtesy.
Seeing they were about to arrest me on suspicion of having caused a
man's death, their politeness, their consideration for my feelings, had
a touch of irony.
They waited while I had my bath and dressed. Then we all drove together
to the police-station, chatting quite pleasantly on topics of passing
interest. At the police-station my name and address and many other
particulars, were taken down in writing. With the utmost gravity a
pompous inspector asked me "what birthmarks I possessed, if any," and
various other questions ending with "if any." I wondered whether,
before he had done, he would ask me my sex--if any.
Nearly a month dragged on--days of anxiety, which seemed years, and I
had had no word from Vera!