I did not know he was being poisoned."
"You knew when I was with you. Oh! the dead man--the murdered man--was
in the house at the very moment! Your hands were red with blood when
you took me away--to get me out of the way--so that I should not
know--" She stopped, she could not go on.
"I did not know, Iris--not with certainty. I thought he was dying when
he came into the house. He did not die; he began to recover. When the
doctor gave him his medicine--after that woman went away--I suspected.
When he died, my suspicions were stronger. I challenged him. He did not
deny it. Believe me, Iris, I neither counselled it nor knew of it."
"You acquiesced in it. You consented. You should have warned the--the
other murderer that you would denounce him if the man died. You took
advantage of it. His death enabled you to carry out your fraud with me
as your accomplice. With ME! I am an accomplice in a murder!"
"No, no, Iris; you knew nothing of it. No one can ever accuse you--"
"You do not understand. It is part of the accusation which I make
against myself."
"As for what this woman writes," her husband went on, "it is true. I
suppose it is useless to deny a single word of it.
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