s he wished he said he would go that very evening to Mr.
Randolph's and have a new will made which should disinherit Florence,
except for a small annuity."

"And what did Miss Lloyd reply to this threat?" asked the coroner.

"She said," replied Mrs. Pierce, in her plaintive tones, "that her uncle
might do as he chose about that; but she would never give up Mr. Hall."

At this moment Gregory Hall looked more manly than I had yet seen him.

Though he modestly dropped his eyes at this tacit tribute to his
worthiness, yet he squared his shoulders, and showed a justifiable pride
in the love thus evinced for him.

"Was the subject discussed further?" pursued the coroner.

"No; nothing more was said about it after that."

"Will the making of a new will by Mr. Crawfard affect yourself in any
way, Mrs. Pierce?"

"No," she replied, "Mr. Crawford left me a small bequest in his earlier
will and I had reason to think he would do the same in a later will,
even though he changed his intentions regarding Florence."

"Miss Lloyd thoroughly believed that he intended to carry out his threat
last evening?"

"She didn't say so to me, but Mr. Crawford spoke so decidedly on the
matter, that I think both she and I believed he was really going to
carry out his threat at last."

"When Mr. Crawford left the house, did you and Miss Lloyd know where he
was going?"

"We knew no more than he had said at the table. He said nothing when he
went away."

"How did you and Miss Lloyd spend the remainder of the evening?"

"It was but a short evening. We sat in the music-room for a time, but at
about ten o'clock we both went up to our rooms."

"Had Mr. Crawford returned then?"

"Yes, he came in perhaps an hour earlier. We heard him come in at the
front door, and go at once to his office."

"You did not see him, or speak to him?"

"We did not. He had a caller during the evening. It was Mr. Porter, I
have since learned."

"Did Miss Lloyd express no interest as to whether he had changed his
will or not?"

"Miss Lloyd didn't mention the will, or her engagement, to me at all. We
talked entirely of other matters."

"Was Miss Lloyd in her usual mood or spirits?"

"She seemed a little quiet, but not at all what you might call worried."

"Was not this strange when she was fully expecting to be deprived of her
entire fortune?"

"It was not strange for Miss Lloyd. She rarely talks of her own affairs.
We spent an evening similar in all res