use."

"In his own house? In the house in Gramercy Park, do you mean?"

"Yes, he has no other."

"The house in which this dead girl was found?"

"Yes,"--impatiently.

"Did you think she might throw herself at his feet there?"

"She said she might; and as she is romantic, foolishly romantic, I
thought her fully capable of doing so."

"And so you did not seek her in the morning?"

"No, sir."

"How about the afternoon?"

This was a close question; we saw that he was affected by it though he
tried to carry it off bravely.

"I did not see her in the afternoon. I was in a restless frame of mind,
and did not remain in the city."

"Ah! indeed! and where did you go?"

"Unless necessary, I prefer not to say."

"It is necessary."

"I went to Coney Island."

"Alone?"

"Yes."

"Did you see anybody there you know?"

"No."

"And when did you return?"

"At midnight."

"When did you reach your rooms?"

"Later."

"How much later?"

"Two or three hours."

"And where were you during those hours?"

"I was walking the streets."

The ease, the quietness with which he made these acknowledgments were
remarkable. The jury to a man honored him with a prolonged stare, and
the awe-struck crowd scarcely breathed during their utterance. At the
last sentence a murmur broke out, at which he raised his head and with
an air of surprise surveyed the people before him. Though he must have
known what their astonishment meant, he neither quailed nor blanched,
and while not in reality a handsome man, he certainly looked handsome at
this moment.

I did not know what to think; so forbore to think anything. Meanwhile
the examination went on.

"Mr. Van Burnam, I have been told that the locket I see there dangling
from your watch-chain contains a lock of your wife's hair. Is it so?"

"I have a lock of her hair in this; yes."

"Here is a lock clipped from the head of the unknown woman whose
identity we seek. Have you any objection to comparing the two?"

"It is not an agreeable task you have set me," was the imperturbable
response; "but I have no objection to doing what you ask." And calmly
lifting the chain, he took off the locket, opened it, and held it out
courteously toward the Coroner. "May I ask you to make the first
comparison," he said.

The Coroner, taking the locket, laid the two locks of brown hair
together, and after a moment's contemplation of them both, surveyed the
young man seriously, and remarked: