it was an excellent scheme you both devised , i can appreciate that , but while i myself am no stranger to devils , i abhor any connection to the grave other than with a spade , and if you have hurried your friend constance 's demise along with a poison added to her already deadening opiates , then you are a worse beggar than those who steal from the shrivelled aged widows who line this squatting , ugly city 's poorhouses .