appeared confused, if not alarmed, on
learning that the man was in this country and had been seen at this
house, and he seemed abstracted and very unlike himself for fully
an hour after the occurrence."

"Will you state the name of this man?"

"He was spoken of as Richard Hobson, formerly an attorney, of London."

CHAPTER VII

A LITTLE ROYAL

"Harry Scorr, private secretary of Hugh Mainwaring," announced the
coroner, when Mr. Whitney had resumed his chair.

As the young secretary walked deliberately through the crowded room,
there were few who failed to remark his erect, athletic form, his
splendid bearing, and especially the striking beauty of his dark
face, with its olive tint, clear-cut features, indicative of firmness
and strength, and large, piercing eyes, within whose depths, on the
present occasion, there seemed to be, half hidden, half revealed,
some smouldering fire. Instantly a half-dozen pencils were
transferring to paper his form and features.

"Say, what are you 'doing' him for?" whispered one reporter to his
neighbor. "He isn't anybody; only the old man's secretary."

"Can't help that," replied the other; "he's better looking than the
English chap, anyhow; and, in my opinion, the old fellow would have
shown better sense to have left him the 'stuff.'"

Meanwhile, young Scott, having answered a few preliminary
interrogatories, turned slowly, facing Mrs. LaGrange, who was
watching him with an intensity of manner and expression as though she
would compel him to meet her gaze.

As his glance met hers, a look of inquiry flashed from her eyes to
his, accompanied by an expression persuasive, almost appealing. But
the only reply was an ominous flash from the dark eyes, as, with a
gesture of proud disdain, he folded his arms and again faced his
interlocutor, while, with eyes gleaming with revenge from under
their heavily drooping lids and lips that curled from time to time
in a smile of bitter malignity, she watched him, listening eagerly
for his testimony, losing no word that he said.

The young secretary well understood the character of the enemy with
whom he had thus declared war, though he was as yet in ignorance of
the weapons she would use against him, but the honeyed words of the
little note crushed within his pocket had no power to swerve him for
an instant from the course upon which he had determined.

After a few general questions, the coroner said,

"Please state when and what