en desperation. "She may have used sharp
language; I believe indeed she did; but she did not know who I was,
for--for I pretended to be a seller of patent medicine, warranted to
cure all ills, and she told me she had no ills, and--and--Do you want a
man to disgrace himself in your presence?" he suddenly flashed out,
cringing under the gaze of the many curious and unsympathetic eyes fixed
upon him.

But the coroner, with a sudden assumption of severity, pardonable,
perhaps, in a man with a case of such importance on his hands,
recommended the witness to be calm and not to allow any small feelings
of personal mortification to interfere with a testimony of so much
evident value. And without waiting for the witness to recover himself,
asked again:

"What did the widow say, and with what words did you leave?"

"The widow said she abominated drugs, and never took them. I replied
that she made a great mistake, if she had any ailments. Upon which she
retorted that she had no ailment, and politely showed me the door. I do
not remember that any thing else passed between us."

His tone, which had been shrill and high, dropped at the final sentence,
and by the nervous workings of his lips, Mr. Byrd perceived that he
dreaded the next question. The persons grouped around him evidently
dreaded it too.

But it was less searching than they expected, and proved that the
coroner preferred to approach his point by circuitous rather than direct
means.

"In what room was the conversation held, and by what door did you come
in and go out?"

"I came in by the front door, and we stood in that room"--pointing to
the sitting-room from which he had just issued.

"Stood! Did you not sit down?"

"No."

"Stood all the time, and in that room to which you have just pointed?"

"Yes."

The coroner drew a deep breath, and looked at the witness long and
searchingly. Mr. Hildreth's way of uttering this word had been any thing
but pleasant, and consequently any thing but satisfactory. A low murmur
began to eddy through the rooms.

"Gentlemen, silence!" commanded the coroner, venting in this injunction
some of the uncomfortable emotion with which he was evidently
surcharged; for his next words were spoken in a comparatively quiet
voice, though the fixed severity of his eye could have given the witness
but little encouragement.

"You say," he declared, "that in coming through the lane you encountered
no one. Was this equally true of your re