"Couldn't you smell this stuff?" he demanded. "Couldn't she? Where is she?"
"I used distilled water. I didn't say anything to her."
Stephen looked at his housemaid, bewildered.
"I thought it was your mistake and that I'd better tell you."
"You say the solution was all right yesterday?"
His gaze held Ellen's eyes helplessly. He tried vainly to remember her name, but at any rate her name didn't matter.
Stephen grew white; his hand trembled and he set the rack with the little vials down quickly.
Ellen climbed to the third story and found Fetzer in her room. Hilda had gone motoring and the house was soundless.
"What ails you, Ellen?" asked Fetzer. "You look so queer."
"Dr. Lanfair wants you to come to the office."
She went into her room and stood looking out the window. He had not even thanked her! Could the mistake have been Miss Knowlton's? What had Fetzer to do with it? Perhaps he had called for Fetzer on other business. Five minutes passed, ten minutes, and she stood looking down upon the river.
When her bell rang she went to the office, and was there bidden to close the door, whether by Stephen or Fetzer she did not know. She saw only two white faces. Fetzer had sat down because she could not stand. Ammonia in eye-wash--she knew how that would madden and perhaps destroy! Her hand covered her scarred cheek. Vividly recollected sensations paralyzed her mind; she sought as yet no solution of this strange event, but dwelt only on the imagined agony.
"Fetzer tells me that you use ammonia for household purposes," said Stephen. "Where do you keep it?"
Ellen's eyes sought Fetzer's for confirmation.
"Does any one but yourself go to the cupboard?"
"No"--then Ellen corrected herself. She still spoke straightforwardly and innocently. "Mrs. Lanfair got some there yesterday; she filled one of the engraved bottles from her bathroom; at least I think so."
"Because I saw that a new bottle had been opened, and when I cleaned Mrs. Lanfair's bathroom I saw there was ammonia in her violet water bottle. I think she probably wanted to clean a chain or something."
When Ellen had gone he looked down at the floor and Fetzer looked at him. Her lips had parted; she pressed her hand against them as though to close them. She had always known that Hilda was a wicked woman, but not that she was as wicked as this!