her
on business."

I seated myself in the library; placed pen and ink, and some
legal-looking documents, selected at random, before me. Red tape and the
formal pomp of law constitute half its force with women and men of
Louisa's calibre. I had hardly arranged myself and my materials when the
door slowly opened, and she entered. She was alarmed, yet wary. To see a
naturally hearty, merry little body subjected for years to this nervous
strain, with a tragic idea forced into a brain meant to be busied only
with dress, cookery, or babies, appeared to me a pitiful thing.

"Miss Waring?" reducing the ordinary courtesies to a curt, grave nod.
"Be seated, if you please." I turned over my papers slowly, and then
looked up at her. I had, I saw, none of the common feminine shrewdness
to deal with; need expect no subtle devices of concealment; no clever
doublings; nothing but the sheer obstinacy which is an unintellectual
woman's one resource. I would ignore it and her--boldly assume full
possession of the ground at the first word.

"My errand to this house, Miss Waring, is in part the investigation of a
murder in 1854, of which you were the sole witness--that of Houston
Simms----"

I stopped. The change in her face appalled me. She had evidently not
expected so direct an attack. In fact, Beardsley told me afterward that
it was the first time the subject had been broached to her in plain
words. However, she made no reply, and I proceeded in the same formal
tone:

"I shall place before you the facts which are in my possession, and
require your assent to such as are within your knowledge. On the
afternoon of Tuesday, October 5, 1854, Houston Simms left the Pine
Valley station, carrying a valise containing a large sum of money.
You----"

She had been sitting on the other side of the table, looking steadily at
me. She rose now. She wore a blue morning dress, with lace ruffles and
other little fooleries in which women delight, and I remember being
shocked with the strange contrast between this frippery and the
speechless dread and misery of her face. She gained control of her voice
with difficulty.

"Who has said that I was a witness of the murder?" she gasped. "I always
explained that I was in another part of the wood. I went to aunty
Huldah----"

"Pray do not interrupt me, Miss Waring. I am aware that you were the
witness--the sole witness--in this matter." (She did not contradict me.
I was right in my first guess--she had