en dark. People could understand now why Rachel should
hasten to keep a stealthy appointment; why quarrelling should be heard;
in short, why poor Rachel should have been found in the pond. The jury
returned an open verdict--"Found drowned; but how she got into the
water, there is no precise evidence to show."

Robin Frost struggled out of the room as the crowd was dispersing. His
eye was blazing, his cheek burning. Could Robin have laid his hand at
that moment upon the right man, there would speedily have ensued another
coroner's inquest. The earth was not wide enough for the two to live on
it. Fortunately, Robin could not fix on any one, and say, Thou art the
man! The knowledge was hidden from him. And yet, the very man may have
been at the inquest, side by side with himself. Nay, he probably _was_.

Robin Frost cleared himself from the crowd. He gave vent to a groan of
despair; he lifted his strong arms in impotency. Then he turned and
sought Mr. Verner.

Mr. Verner was ill; could not be seen. Lionel came forward.

"Robin, I am truly sorry--truly grieved. We all are. But I know you will
not care to-day to hear me say it."

"Sir, I wanted to see Mr. Verner," replied Robin. "I want to know if
that inquest can be squashed." Don't laugh at him now, poor fellow. He
meant quashed.

"The inquest quashed!" repeated Lionel. "Of course it cannot be. I don't
know what you mean, Robin. It has been held, and it cannot be unheld."

"I should ha' said the verdict," explained Robin. "I'm beside myself
to-day, Mr. Lionel. Can't Mr. Verner get it squashed? He knows the
crowner."

"Neither Mr. Verner nor anybody else could do it, Robin. Why should you
wish it done?"

"Because it as good as sets forth a lie," vehemently answered Robin
Frost. "She never put herself into the water. Bad as things had turned
out with her, poor dear, she never did that. Mr. Lionel, I ask you, sir,
was she likely to do it?"

"I should have deemed it very unlikely," replied Lionel. "Until to-day,"
he added to his own thoughts.

"No, she never did! Was it the work of one to go and buy herself aprons,
and tape, and cotton for sewing, who was on her way to fling herself
into a pond, I'd ask the crowner?" he continued, his voice rising almost
to a shriek in his emotion. "Them aprons be a proof that _she_ didn't
take her own life. Why didn't they bring it in Wilful Murder, and have
the place scoured out to find him?"

"The verdict will make no differe