The Secret Adversary

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Tuppence was quick in her mental processes. All these reflections
passed through her mind in a flash, and she saw where a chance, a very
problematical chance, lay, and she determined to risk all in one supreme
effort.

Accordingly, she lurched suddenly off the bed and fell on her knees
before Mrs. Vandemeyer, clutching her skirts frantically.

"I don't believe it," she moaned. "It's poison--I know it's poison.
Oh, don't make me drink it"--her voice rose to a shriek--"don't make me
drink it!"

Mrs. Vandemeyer, glass in hand, looked down with a curling lip at this
sudden collapse.

"Get up, you little idiot! Don't go on drivelling there. How you ever
had the nerve to play your part as you did I can't think." She stamped