concluded she was not your wife?"

"From this and other things."

"Yet you must have seen that the woman was in the habit of wearing
rings, even if they were not on her hands at that moment?"

"Why, sir? What should I know about her habits?"

"Is not that a ring I see now on your little finger?"

"It is; my seal ring which I always wear."

"Will you pull it off?"

"Pull it off!"

"If you please; it is a simple test I am requiring of you, sir."

The witness looked astonished, but pulled off the ring at once.

"Here it is," said he.

"Thank you, but I do not want it. I merely want you to look at your
finger."

The witness complied, evidently more nonplussed than disturbed by this
command.

"Do you see any difference between that finger and the one next it?"

"Yes; there is a mark about my little finger showing where the ring has
pressed."

"Very good; there were such marks on the fingers of the dead girl, who,
as you say, had no rings on. I saw them, and perhaps you did yourself?"

"I did not; I did not look closely enough."

"They were on the little finger of the right hand, on the marriage
finger of the left, and on the forefinger of the same. On which fingers
did your wife wear rings?"

"On those same fingers, sir, but I will not accept this fact as proving
her identity with the deceased. Most women do wear rings, and on those
very fingers."

The Coroner was nettled, but he was not discouraged. He exchanged looks
with Mr. Gryce, but nothing further passed between them and we were left
to conjecture what this interchange of glances meant.

The witness, who did not seem to be affected either by the character of
this examination or by the conjectures to which it gave rise, preserved
his _sang-froid_, and eyed the Coroner as he might any other questioner,
with suitable respect, but with no fear and but little impatience. And
yet he must have known the horrible suspicion darkening the minds of
many people present, and suspected, even if against his will, that this
examination, significant as it was, was but the forerunner of another
and yet more serious one.

"You are very determined," remarked the Coroner in beginning again, "not
to accept the very substantial proofs presented you of the identity
between the object of this inquiry and your missing wife. But we are not
yet ready to give up the struggle, and so I must ask if you heard the
description given by Miss Ferguson of the manner in which yo