I could not help it,
Miss Eleanore!" she whispered; "it was the truth."

Eleanore Leavenworth frowned. This somewhat contradictory evidence
had very sensibly affected her; and when, a moment later, the coroner,
having dismissed the witness, turned towards her, and inquired if she
had anything further to say in the way of explanation or otherwise,
she threw her hands up almost spasmodically, slowly shook her head and,
without word or warning, fainted quietly away in her chair.

A commotion, of course, followed, during which I noticed that Mary did
not hasten to her cousin, but left it for Molly and Kate to do what
they could toward her resuscitation. In a few moments this was in so far
accomplished that they were enabled to lead her from the room. As they
did so, I observed a tall man rise and follow her out.

A momentary silence ensued, soon broken, however, by an impatient stir
as our little juryman rose and proposed that the jury should now adjourn
for the day. This seeming to fall in with the coroner's views, he
announced that the inquest would stand adjourned till three o'clock the
next day, when he trusted all the jurors would be present.

A general rush followed, that in a few minutes emptied the room of all
but Miss Leavenworth, Mr. Gryce, and myself.

IX. A DISCOVERY

"His rolling Eies did never rest in place,
But walkte each where for feare of hid mischance,
Holding a lattis still before his Pace,
Through which he still did peep as forward he did pace."

Faerie Queene.

MISS LEAVENWORTH, who appeared to have lingered from a vague terror
of everything and everybody in the house not under her immediate
observation, shrank from my side the moment she found herself left
comparatively alone, and, retiring to a distant corner, gave herself
up to grief. Turning my attention, therefore, in the direction of Mr.
Gryce, I found that person busily engaged in counting his own fingers
with a troubled expression upon his countenance, which may or may not
have been the result of that arduous employment. But, at my approach,
satisfied perhaps that he possessed no more than the requisite number,
he dropped his hands and greeted me with a faint smile which was,
considering all things, too suggestive to be pleasant.

"Well," said I, taking my stand before him, "I cannot blame you. You had
a right to do as you thought best; but how had you the heart? Was she
not sufficiently compromised w