cer, who had been sent into the adjoining room, came back
with a gentleman, who was no sooner recognized as Mr. Franklin Van
Burnam than a great change took place in the countenances of all
present. The Coroner sat forward and dropped the large palm-leaf fan he
had been industriously using for the last few minutes, the jury settled
down, and the whispering of the many curious ones about me grew less
audible and finally ceased altogether. A gentleman of the family was
about to be interrogated, and such a gentleman!

I have purposely refrained from describing this best known and best
reputed member of the Van Burnam family, foreseeing this hour when he
would attract the attention of a hundred eyes and when his appearance
would require our special notice. I will therefore endeavor to picture
him to you as he looked on this memorable morning, with just the simple
warning that you must not expect me to see with the eyes of a young girl
or even with those of a fashionable society woman. I know a man when I
see him, and I had always regarded Mr. Franklin as an exceptionally
fine-looking and prepossessing gentleman, but I shall not go into
raptures, as I heard a girl behind me doing, nor do I feel like
acknowledging him as a paragon of all the virtues--as Mrs. Cunningham
did that evening in my parlor.

He is a medium-sized man, with a shape not unlike his brother's. His
hair is dark and so are his eyes, but his moustache is brown and his
complexion quite fair. He carries himself with distinction, and though
his countenance in repose has a precise air that is not perfectly
agreeable, it has, when he speaks or smiles, an expression at once keen
and amiable.

On this occasion he failed to smile, and though his elegance was
sufficiently apparent, his worth was not so much so. Yet the impression
generally made was favorable, as one could perceive from the air of
respect with which his testimony was received.

He was asked many questions. Some were germane to the matter in hand and
some seemed to strike wide of all mark. He answered them all
courteously, showing a manly composure in doing so, that served to calm
the fever-heat into which many had been thrown by the stories of the two
hackmen. But as his evidence up to this point related merely to minor
concerns, this was neither strange nor conclusive. The real test began
when the Coroner, with a certain bluster, which may have been meant to
attract the attention of the jury, now