next suggestion could not be passed over.

"If you saw Mrs. Van Burnam so often, you are acquainted with her
personal appearance?"

"Sufficiently so; as well as I know that of my ordinary
calling-acquaintance."

"Was she light or dark?"

"She had brown hair."

"Similar to this?"

The lock held up was the one which had been cut from the head of the
dead girl.

"Yes, somewhat similar to that." The tone was cold; but he could not
hide his distress.

"Mr. Van Burnam, have you looked well at the woman who was found
murdered in your father's house?"

"I have, sir."

"Is there anything in her general outline or in such features as have
escaped disfigurement to remind you of Mrs. Howard Van Burnam?"

"I may have thought so--at first glance," he replied, with decided
effort.

"And did you change your mind at the second?"

He looked troubled, but answered firmly: "No, I cannot say that I did.
But you must not regard my opinion as conclusive," he hastily added. "My
knowledge of the lady was comparatively slight."

"The jury will take that into account. All we want to know now is
whether you can assert from any knowledge you have or from anything to
be noted in the body itself, that it is not Mrs. Howard Van Burnam?"

"I cannot."

And with this solemn assertion his examination closed.

The remainder of the day was taken up in trying to prove a similarity
between Mrs. Van Burnam's handwriting and that of Mrs. James Pope as
seen in the register of the Hotel D---- and on the order sent to
Altman's. But the only conclusion reached was that the latter might be
the former disguised, and even on this point the experts differed.

XIII.

HOWARD VAN BURNAM.

The gentleman who stepped from the carriage and entered Mr. Van Burnam's
house at twelve o'clock that night produced so little impression upon me
that I went to bed satisfied that no result would follow these efforts
at identification.

And so I told Mr. Gryce when he arrived next morning. But he seemed by
no means disconcerted, and merely requested that I would submit to one
more trial. To which I gave my consent, and he departed.

I could have asked him a string of questions, but his manner did not
invite them, and for some reason I was too wary to show an interest in
this tragedy superior to that felt by every right-thinking person
connected with it.

At ten o'clock I was in my old seat in the court-room. The same crowd
with different faces co