it. But though she showed alike her shame and
her disheartenment, she did not give up the struggle.

"If I went into the house," she said, "it was not to enter that room.
I had too great a dread of it. If I rested my head against the wall
it was in terror of that shot. It came so suddenly and was so
frightful, so much more frightful than anything you can conceive."

"Then you did enter the house?"

"I did."

"And it was while you were inside, instead of outside, that you
heard the shot?"

"I must admit that, too. I was at the library door."

"You acknowledge that?"

"I do."

"But you did not enter the library?"

"No, not then; not till I was taken back by the officer who told me
of my sister's death."

"We are glad to hear this precise statement from you. It encourages
me to ask again the nature of the freak which took you into this
house. You say that it was not from any dread on your sister's
account? What, then, was it? No evasive answer will satisfy us,
Miss Tuttle."

She realized this as no one else could.

Mr. Jeffrey's reason for his visit there could not be her reason,
yet what other had she to give? Apparently none.

"I can not answer," she said.

And the deep sigh which swept through the room was but an echo of
the despair with which she saw herself brought to this point.

"We will not oblige you to," said the coroner with apparent
consideration. But to those who knew the law against forcing a
witness to incriminate himself, this was far from an encouraging
concession.

"However," he now went on, with suddenly assumed severity, "you
may answer this. Was the house dark or light when you entered it?
And, how did you get in?"

"The house was dark, and I got in through the front door, which I
found ajar."

"You are more courageous than most women! I fear there are few of
your sex who could be induced to enter it in broad daylight and
under every suitable protection."

She raised her figure proudly.

"Miss Tuttle, you have heard Chloe say that you were in the kitchen
of Mr. Jeffrey's house when the grocer boy delivered the candles
which had been left by your brother-in-law on the counter of the
store where he bought them. Is this true?"

"Yes, sir, it is true."

"Did you see those candles?"

"No, sir."

"You did not see them?"

"No, sir."

"Yet you went over to the table?"

"Yes, sir, but I did not meddle with the packages. I had really
no business with them."