house alone with a man at the hour testified to by one of your
witnesses."[A]

"Not with any man?"

"I did not mean to include her husband in my remark, of course. But as I
did not take her to Gramercy Park, the fact that the deceased woman
entered an empty house accompanied by a man, is proof enough to me that
she was not Louise Van Burnam."

"When did you part with your wife?"

"On Monday morning at the depot in Haddam."

"Did you know where she was going?"

"I knew where she said she was going."

"And where was that, may I ask?"

"To New York, to interview my father."

"But your father was not in New York?"

"He was daily expected here. The steamer on which he had sailed from
Southampton was due on Tuesday."

"Had she an interest in seeing your father? Was there any special reason
why she should leave you for doing so?"

"She thought so; she thought he would become reconciled to her entrance
into our family if he should see her suddenly and without prejudiced
persons standing by."

"And did you fear to mar the effect of this meeting if you accompanied
her?"

"No, for I doubted if the meeting would ever take place. I had no
sympathy with her schemes, and did not wish to give her the sanction of
my presence."

"Was that the reason you let her go to New York alone?"

"Yes."

"Had you no other?"

"No."

"Why did you follow her, then, in less than five hours?"

"Because I was uneasy; because I also wanted to see my father; because I
am a man accustomed to carry out every impulse; and impulse led me that
day in the direction of my somewhat headstrong wife."

"Did you know where your wife intended to spend the night?"

"I did not. She has many friends, or at least I have, in the city, and I
concluded she would go to one of them--as she did."

"When did you arrive in the city? before ten o'clock?"

"Yes, a few minutes before."

"Did you try to find your wife?"

"No. I went directly to the club."

"Did you try to find her the next morning?"

"No; I had heard that the steamer had not yet been sighted off Fire
Island, so considered the effort unnecessary."

"Why? What connection is there between this fact and an endeavor on your
part to find your wife?"

"A very close one. She had come to New York to throw herself at my
father's feet. Now she could only do this at the steamer or in----"

"Why do you not proceed, Mr. Van Burnam?"

"I will. I do not know why I stopped,--or in his own ho