Within a time period of only three years Margaret Oliphant utilized the same scenario in two novels and one short story: an innocent girl is attending to an invalid when the invalid impulsively seizes her medicine and takes a deadly dose. (In the first two stories the deaths are accidental; in the third a dying patient delivers herself from unbearable pain.) Mrs Oliphant then explores alternative outcomes, taking each story in a different direction. In all instances there will be repercussions for one or more of the story's characters.
