first glance showed him a flushed and weary set of
features, shocked and appalled; but the eyes, looking straight up in
their anxiety, encountered his with an earnest grateful appeal for
sympathy, answered at once by a step forward with outstretched hand.
The grip of the fingers was heated, agitated, convulsive, but not
tremulous; and there was feeling, not fear, in the low husky voice that
said, 'Thank you. Is Henry here?'

'No, he is too--too much overcome; but he hopes to see you at home
to-night; and here is Edward Anderson, whom he has sent to watch the
proceedings for you.'

'Thank you,' said Leonard, acknowledging Edward's greeting. 'As far as
I am concerned, I can explain all in a minute; but my poor uncle--I
little thought--'

There was no opportunity for further speech in private, for the coroner
had already arrived, and the inquiry had been only deferred until
Leonard should have come. The jury had been viewing the body, and the
proceedings were to take place in the large low dining-room, where the
southern windows poured in a flood of light on the faces of the persons
crowded together, and the reflections from the rippling water danced on
the ceiling. Dr. May had a chair given him near the coroner, and
keenly watched the two nephews--one seated next to him, the other at
some distance, nearly opposite. Both young men looked haggard,
shocked, and oppressed: the eye of Axworthy was unceasingly fixed on an
inkstand upon the table, and never lifted, his expression never varied;
and Leonard's glance flashed inquiringly from one speaker to another,
and his countenance altered with every phase of the evidence.

The first witness was Anne Ellis, the young maid-servant, who told of
her coming down at ten minutes after five that morning, the 6th of
July, and on going in to clean the rooms, finding her master sunk
forward on the table. Supposing him to have had a fit, she had run to
the window and screamed for help, when Master Hardy, the foreman, and
Mrs. Giles, the housekeeper, had come in.

James Hardy deposed to having heard the girl's cry while he was
unlocking the mill door. Coming in by the low sash-window, which stood
open, he had gone up to his master, and had seen the wound on the head,
and found the body quite cold, Mrs. Giles coming in, they had carried
it to the bed in the next room; and he had gone to call the young
gentlemen, but neither was in his room. He knew that it had been left
uncerta