you mention?"

"In the hall, sir. I opened the door for him."

"And to whom did he first mention his errand?"

"To Miss Tuttle. She had come in just before him and was standing
at the foot of the stairs."

"What! Was Miss Tuttle out that evening?"

"Yes; she went out very soon after Mrs. Jeffrey left. When she
came in she said that she had been around the block, but she must
have gone around it more than once, for she was absent two hours."

"Did you let her in?"

"Yes, sir."

"And she said she had been around the block?"

"Yes, sir"

"Did she say anything else?"

"She asked if Mr. Jeffrey had come in"

"Anything else?"

"Then if Mrs. Jeffrey had returned."

"To both of which questions you answered--"

"A plain 'No.'"

"Now tell us about the officer."

"He rang the bell almost immediately after she did. Thinking she
would want to slip upstairs before I admitted any one, I waited a
minute for her to go, but she did not do so, and when the officer
stepped in she--"

"Well!"

"She shrieked."

"What! before he spoke?"

"Yes, sir."

"Just at sight of him?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did he wear his badge in plain view?"

"Yes, on his breast."

"So that you knew him to be a police officer?"

"Yes."

"And Miss Tuttle shrieked at seeing a police officer?"

"Yes, and sprang forward."

"Did she say anything?"

"Not then."

"What did she do?"

"Waited for him to speak."

"Which he did?"

"At once, and very brutally. He asked if she was Mrs. Jeffrey's
sister, and when she nodded and gasped 'Yes,' he blurted out that
Mrs. Jeffrey was dead; that he had just come from the old house in
Waverley Avenue, where she had just been found."

"And Miss Tuttle?"

"Didn't know what to say; just hid her face. She was leaning
against the newel-post, so it was easy for her to do so. I remember
that the man stared at her for taking it so quietly and asking no
questions."

"And did she speak at all?"

"Oh, yes, afterwards. Her face was wrapped in the folds of her
cloak, but I heard her whisper, as if to herself: 'No! no! That
old hearth is not a lodestone. She can not have fallen there.'
And then she looked up quite wildly and cried: 'There is something
more! Something which you have not told me.' 'She shot herself,
if that's what you mean.' Miss Tuttle's arms went straight up over
her head. It was awful to see her. 'Shot herself?' she gasped.
'Oh, Veronica, Veronica!' 'With a pistol,