ing
calamity which had overtaken Rachel; to say that occupations were
partially suspended, that there ensued a glorious interim of idleness,
for the female portion of it--of conferences in gutters and collectings
in houses; to say that Rachel was sincerely mourned, old Frost
sympathised with, and the supposed assailant vigorously sought after,
would be sufficient to indicate that public curiosity was excited to a
high pitch; but all this was as nothing compared to the excitement that
was to ensue upon the evidence given at the coroner's inquest.

In the absence of any certain data to go upon, Deerham had been content
to take uncertain data, and to come to its own conclusions. Deerham
assumed that Rachel, from some reasons which they could not fathom, had
taken the lonely road home that night, had met with somebody or other
with whom had ensued a quarrel and scuffle, and that, accidentally or by
intent, she had been pushed into the pond, the coward decamping.

"Villainy enough! even if 'twas but an accident!" cried wrathful
Deerham.

Villainy enough, beyond all doubt, had this been the extent. But,
Deerham had to learn that the villainy had had a beginning previous to
that.

The inquest had been summoned in due course. It sat two days after the
accident. No evidence, tending to further elucidate the matter, was
given, than had been elicited that first night before Mr. Verner; except
the medical evidence. Dr. West and a surgeon from a neighbouring town,
who had jointly made the post-mortem examination, testified that there
was a cause for Rachel Frost's unevenness of spirits, spoken to by her
father and by Mrs. Verner. She might possibly, they now thought, have
thrown herself into the pool; induced to it by self-condemnation.

It electrified Deerham. It electrified Mr. Verner. It worse than
electrified Matthew Frost and Robin. In the first impulse of the news,
Mr. Verner declared that it _could not be_. But the medical men, with
their impassive faces, calmly said that _it was_.

But, so far as the inquiry went, the medical testimony did not carry the
matter any further. For, if the evidence tended to induce a suspicion
that Rachel might have found life a burden, and so wished to end it, it
only rendered stronger the suspicion against another. This supplied the
very motive for that other's conduct which had been wanting, supposing
he had indeed got rid of her by violence. It gave the clue to much which
had before be