CHAPTER XIV.
"What has come over Gertrude ?" said Agatha one day to Lady Brandon.
"Why?
Is anything the matter with her ?" "I don't know; she has not been the same since she poisoned herself.
And why did she not tell about it?
But for Trefusis we should never have known." "Gertrude always made secrets of things." "She was in a vile temper for two days after; and now she is quite changed.

She falls into long reveries, and does not hear a word of what is going on around.

Then she starts into life again, and begs your pardon with the greatest sweetness for not catching what you have said." "I hate her when she is polite; it is not natural to her.

As to her going to sleep, that is the effect of the hemlock.

We know a man who took a spoonful of strychnine in a bath, and he never was the same afterwards." "I think she is making up her mind to encourage Erskine," said Agatha.
"When I came here he hardly dared speak to her--at least, she always snubbed him.