being completely filled in with carefully
arranged flowers and evergreens--also the steward's own doing.

Abraham Brown, of Hoxton, London--an old white-headed man, without the
ruddiness which makes white hairs so pleasing--was sworn, and deposed
that he kept a lodging-house at an address he named. On a Saturday
evening less than a month before the fire, a lady came to him, with very
little luggage, and took the front room on the second floor. He did not
inquire where she came from, as she paid a week in advance, but she gave
her name as Mrs. Manston, referring him, if he wished for any guarantee
of her respectability, to Mr. Manston, Knapwater Park. Here she lived
for three weeks, rarely going out. She slept away from her lodgings one
night during the time. At the end of that time, on the twenty-eighth of
November, she left his house in a four-wheeled cab, about twelve o'clock
in the day, telling the driver to take her to the Waterloo Station. She
paid all her lodging expenses, and not having given notice the full week
previous to her going away, offered to pay for the next, but he only
took half. She wore a thick black veil, and grey waterproof cloak, when
she left him, and her luggage was two boxes, one of plain deal, with
black japanned clamps, the other sewn up in canvas.

Joseph Chinney, porter at the Carriford Road Station, deposed that he
saw Mrs. Manston, dressed as the last witness had described, get out
of a second-class carriage on the night of the twenty-eighth. She stood
beside him whilst her luggage was taken from the van. The luggage,
consisting of the clamped deal box and another covered with canvas, was
placed in the cloak-room. She seemed at a loss at finding nobody there
to meet her. She asked him for some person to accompany her, and carry
her bag to Mr. Manston's house, Knapwater Park. He was just off duty
at that time, and offered to go himself. The witness here repeated
the conversation he had had with Mrs. Manston during their walk, and
testified to having left her at the door of the Three Tranters Inn, Mr.
Manston's house being closed.

Next, Farmer Springrove was called. A murmur of surprise and
commiseration passed round the crowded room when he stepped forward.

The events of the few preceding days had so worked upon his nervously
thoughtful nature that the blue orbits of his eyes, and the mere spot of
scarlet to which the ruddiness of his cheeks had contracted, seemed the
result of a hea