“I gather that you did not know your wife well at the time of your marriage?”
“I had only known her a few weeks.”

“How long had this maid Dolores been with her?”
“Some years.”
“Then your wife’s character would really be better known by Dolores than by you?”

“No doubt you and the boy were great comrades before this second marriage. You were thrown very close together, were you not?”

“And the boy, having so affectionate a nature, was devoted, no doubt, to the memory of his mother?”

“Did it come on suddenly?”
“In a single night.”

“Did it not occur to you that a bleeding wound may be sucked for some other purpose than to draw the blood from it?”

“A South American household. My instinct felt the presence of those weapons upon the wall before my eyes ever saw them. It might have been other poison, but that was what occurred to me.”

“And the dog! If one were to use such a poison, would one not try it first in order to see that it had not lost its power? I did not foresee the dog, but at least I understand him and he fitted into my reconstruction.”

“Your wife feared such an attack. She saw it made and saved the child’s life, and yet she shrank from telling you all the truth, for she knew how you loved the boy and feared lest it break your heart.”

“But how did you dare to leave the child these last two days?”
“I had told Mrs. Mason. She knew.”
“Exactly. So I imagined.”