think every one's sympathy went out to the young man as he stood
before the coroner and tried to throw what light he could upon the
mystery. He was well dressed, as he had been the day before, but he
looked terribly ill and worried, and no doubt the fact that he had not
shaved gave his face a careworn and neglected air.

"It appears that he and the deceased had been married some six years or
so, and that they had always been happy in their married life. They had
no children. Mrs. Hazeldene seemed to enjoy the best of health till
lately, when she had had a slight attack of influenza, in which Dr.
Arthur Jones had attended her. The doctor was present at this moment,
and would no doubt explain to the coroner and the jury whether he
thought that Mrs. Hazeldene had the slightest tendency to heart disease,
which might have had a sudden and fatal ending.

"The coroner was, of course, very considerate to the bereaved husband.
He tried by circumlocution to get at the point he wanted, namely, Mrs.
Hazeldene's mental condition lately. Mr. Hazeldene seemed loath to talk
about this. No doubt he had been warned as to the existence of the small
bottle found in his wife's satchel.

"'It certainly did seem to me at times,' he at last reluctantly
admitted, 'that my wife did not seem quite herself. She used to be very
gay and bright, and lately I often saw her in the evening sitting, as if
brooding over some matters, which evidently she did not care to
communicate to me.'

"Still the coroner insisted, and suggested the small bottle.

"'I know, I know,' replied the young man, with a short, heavy sigh. 'You
mean--the question of suicide--I cannot understand it at all--it seems
so sudden and so terrible--she certainly had seemed listless and
troubled lately--but only at times--and yesterday morning, when I went
to business, she appeared quite herself again, and I suggested that we
should go to the opera in the evening. She was delighted, I know, and
told me she would do some shopping, and pay a few calls in the
afternoon.'

"'Do you know at all where she intended to go when she got into the
Underground Railway?'

"'Well, not with certainty. You see, she may have meant to get out at
Baker Street, and go down to Bond Street to do her shopping. Then,
again, she sometimes goes to a shop in St. Paul's Churchyard, in which
case she would take a ticket to Aldersgate Street; but I cannot say.'

"'Now, Mr. Hazeldene,' said the coroner at la