He then swiftly took the phial from its hiding place and drank the contents and died in one ghastly minute.
When the night nurse awoke he was crisped in a horrible _rigor_.

On the night table was the phial with the remains of the draught.

She had noticed in the last day or two Lady Shillito fussing a good deal about the sick man, pressing on him doses of a colourless medicine.
_What if she had stolen in while the nurse was asleep and placed a finally fatal draught by the bedside ?_ From that she proceeded to argue (when she had leisure to think it out) that she _hadn't_ been to sleep, had merely been resting her eyes.

And she was now sure that whilst she had closed those orbs she had heard--as indeed she had, only it was Sir Grimthorpe himself--some one stealing into the room.
She communicated her suspicions to the doctor.

The latter knew his patient had not died of anything he had prescribed, but concluded that Lady Shillito, wishing to be through with the business, had prepared a fulminating dose obtained elsewhere; and insisted on autopsy with a colleague, to whom he more than hinted his suspicions.