stance now."

"I cannot." He did not seem to be quite master of himself. "I don't know
half the things I do; at least, I didn't use to. But what are you coming
to? What's in your mind, and what are your intentions? Something to shame
us further, I've no doubt. You're soft on Ranelagh and don't care how I
feel, or how Carmel will feel when she comes to herself--poor girl. Are
you going to call it suicide? You can't, with those marks on her throat."

"We're going to carry out our investigations to the full. We're going to
hold the autopsy, which we didn't think necessary before. That's why I am
here, Arthur. I thought it your due to know our intentions in regard to
this matter. If you wish to be present, you have only to say so; if you
do not, you may trust me to remember that she was your father's daughter,
as well as my own highly esteemed friend."

Shaken to the core, the young man sat down amid innumerable tokens of the
two near, if not dear, ones just mentioned; and for a moment had nothing
to say. Gone was his violence, gone his self-assertion, and his insolent,
captious attitude towards his visitor. The net had been drawn too
tightly, or the blow fallen too heavily. He was no longer a man
struggling with his misery, but a boy on whom had fallen a man's
responsibilities, sufferings, and cares.

"My duty is here," he said at last. "I cannot leave Carmel."

"The autopsy will take place to-morrow. How is Carmel to-day?"

"No better." The words came with a shudder. "Doctor, I've been a brute to
you. I am a brute! I have misused my life and have no strength with which
to meet trouble. What you propose to do with--with Adelaide is horrible
to me. I didn't love her much while she was living; I broke her heart and
shamed her, from morning till night, every day of her life; but
good-for-nothing as I am and good-for-nothing as I've always been, if I
could save her body this last humiliation, I would willingly die right
here and now, and be done with it. Must this autopsy take place?"

"It must."

"Then--" He raised his arm; the blood swept up, dyeing his cheeks, his
brow, his very neck a vivid scarlet. "Tell them to lock up every
bottle the house holds, or I cannot answer for myself. I should like
to drink and drink till I knew nothing, cared for nothing, was a
madman or a beast."

"You will not drink." The coroner's voice rang deep; he was greatly
moved. "You will not drink, and you will come to the office at five