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Sussex Tragedies and Romances. 207 |
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his mind. The form in which he gave effect to this was to request that a nurse should be called in; that another medical man should be associated with himself; and that for some days the husband should not be with his wife. This advice was given to the brother on the 30th of June. On the following day Dr. Taaffe and he were to meet at the house of the latter to arrange their future line of action. Early on the morning of that day—a Sunday—Mrs. Warder died. Her husband had been with her all the Saturday night. How he employed it who can doubt ? It was the last time that he would, in all probability, be allowed to act as nurse to the poor lady. Suspicion, he must have felt, was awake, and what he had to do, if done at all, must be done quickly. On the landlady, in answer to his summons, entering the room on Sunday morning, Dr. Warder, addressing her, exclaimed, "She is dying." Mrs. Warder was, indeed, already unconscious, and, before her brother or Dr. Taaffe could be summoned, she was a corpse. The grief of her husband, after death, was as marked as his attentions to her during life had been unremitting.
But Dr. Taaffe refused to certify to the cause of death. Hence an inquest was necessary, and, as a matter of course, a post-mortem examination was ordered by the Coroner, and the enquiry adjourned to await the result of an analysis by Dr. Taylor. The inquest was held on the Wednesday. The burial of Mrs. Warder took place on the Saturday. It was attended by Dr. Warder and Dr. Taaffe—with what feelings by the former who can realise ? Those of the latter were subsequently avowed; he looked upon the husband as the murderer of the wife whose remains he was following to the grave. Suspicion was so far aroused that a watch was set by the police on the movements of Dr. Warder. But, after returning to his lodgings from the funeral, he managed to evade this and went up to London. In the evening of Monday he returned to his lodgings—cool and collected, according to his landlady, whom he requested to make out her bill, and on the following morning she found the full amount on the table, |
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