owing look, and drawing near Mr. Lamotte,
"they would have ordered me off, and shut the door in my face; so I just
asked to see _you_ on particular business. But if you was to ring your
bell, by and by, and order one of your servants to take me in to look
at the corpse, I could explain to them what an old friend I was, and
that would settle the curiosity business."

"Doesn't it strike you, Brooks, that you don't cut much of a figure, to
appear as the friend of my son-in-law?" questions Mr. Lamotte, looking
some disfavor at the _ensemble_ before him.

Brooks buries his chin in his bosom, in order to survey his soiled
linen; looks down at his dingy boots; runs his fingers through his shock
of coarse red hair.

"I ain't much of a feller to look at; but that's because I ain't been as
lucky as Burrill was; though I ain't anxious to change places with him
now. I'll fix the friendship business to suit you, sir, and be proper
respectful about it. Say Burrill was my boss, or something of that sort.
I shouldn't like to have certain parties know my _real_ business here,
and I _should_ like to take a look at Burrill on my own account."

There is a ring of sarcasm in the first words of this speech, and Mr.
Lamotte reflects that he has not yet learned his errand.

"Very good, Brooks, you shall see the body, and manage the rest as
delicately as possible, please. You know we want no ill spoken of the
dead. Now, then, your real business, for," consulting his watch, "time
presses."

"I know it does, sir, and I won't waste any words. You see, sir, beggin'
your pardon for mentionin' of it, Burrill has got another wife, a
divorced one, I mean, livin' down at the avenue. She works in Story's
mill now, but she used to work in yours before--"

"Yes, yes," impatiently. "Get on faster, Brooks."

"Well, you see, sir, since her husband--I mean since _Mr. Burrill_ was
killed, she has been cuttin' up rough, and lettin' out a many things as
you wouldn't like to have get all over W----. She ain't afraid of him no
more (he did beat her monstrous), and when she gets to takin' on, she
lets out things that would sound bad about your son-in-law. If it was a
common chap like me, it wouldn't matter; but I thinks to myself, now,
Brooks, this 'ere woman who can't hold her tongue will be hauled up as a
witness for Doctor Heath. I ain't got nothing against Doctor Heath, but
I says, it will be awful humblin' to Mr. Lamotte's pride, and powerful
hard on h