s by no means sure
herself that Underwood had committed suicide. Howard had confessed, so
why should she jeopardize her good name uselessly?

"No," repeated the judge, shaking his head, "there's something strange
in the whole affair. I don't believe Howard had any hand in it."

"But he confessed!" exclaimed Alicia.

The judge shook his head.

"That's nothing," he said. "There have been many instances of untrue
confessions. A famous affair of the kind was the Boorn case in Vermont.
Two brothers confessed having killed their brother-in-law and described
how they destroyed the body, yet some time afterward the murdered man
turned up alive and well. The object of the confession, of course, was
to turn the verdict from murder to manslaughter, the circumstantial
evidence against them having been so strong. In the days of witchcraft
the unfortunate women accused of being witches were often urged by
relatives to confess as being the only way of escape open to them. Ann
Foster, at Salem, in 1692, confessed that she was a witch. She said the
devil appeared to her in the shape of a bird, and that she attended a
meeting of witches at Salem village. She was not insane, but the horror
of the accusation brought against her had been too much for a weak mind.
Howard's confession may possibly be due to some such influence."

"I hope for his poor father's sake," said Alicia, "that you may be right
and that he may be proved innocent, but everything is overwhelmingly
against him. I think you are the only one in New York to express such a
doubt."

"Don't forget his wife," remarked the judge dryly.

"No," she replied. "I really feel sorry for the girl myself. Will you
give her some money if I----"

The lawyer shook his head.

"She won't take it. I tried it. She wants me to defend her husband--I
tried to bribe her to go to some other lawyer, but it wouldn't work."

"Well, something ought to be done to stop her annoying us!" exclaimed
Alicia indignantly. "Mr. Jeffries suffers terribly. I can hear him
pacing up and down the library till three or four in the morning. Poor
man, he suffers so keenly and he won't let any one sympathize with him.
He won't let me mention his son's name. I feel we ought to do something.
Try and persuade him to let me see this girl and--you are his friend as
well as his legal adviser."

Judge Brewster bowed.

"Your husband is a very old friend, Mrs. Jeffries. I can't disregard his
wishes entirely----"