t?"

Her cheek flushed angrily; was it at his tone, or at the question
itself? "No, sir! she never confided her secrets to my keeping."

"Then you cannot tell us where she would be likely to go upon leaving
this house?"

"Certainly not."

"Miss Leavenworth, we are obliged to put another question to you. We are
told it was by your order your uncle's body was removed from where it
was found, into the next room."

She bowed her head.

"Didn't you know it to be improper for you or any one else to disturb
the body of a person found dead, except in the presence and under the
authority of the proper officer?"

"I did not consult my knowledge, sir, in regard to the subject: only my
feelings."

"Then I suppose it was your feelings which prompted you to remain
standing by the table at which he was murdered, instead of following the
body in and seeing it properly deposited? Or perhaps," he went on, with
relentless sarcasm, "you were too much interested, just then, in the
piece of paper you took away, to think much of the proprieties of the
occasion?"

"Paper?" lifting her head with determination. "Who says I took a piece
of paper from the table?"

"One witness has sworn to seeing you bend over the table upon which
several papers lay strewn; another, to meeting you a few minutes later
in the hall just as you were putting a piece of paper into your pocket.
The inference follows, Miss Leavenworth."

This was a home thrust, and we looked to see some show of agitation, but
her haughty lip never quivered.

"You have drawn the inference, and you must prove the fact."

The answer was stateliness itself, and we were not surprised to see the
coroner look a trifle baffled; but, recovering himself, he said:

"Miss Leavenworth, I must ask you again, whether you did or did not take
anything from that table?"

She folded her arms. "I decline answering the question," she quietly
said.

"Pardon me," he rejoined: "it is necessary that you should."

Her lip took a still more determined curve. "When any suspicious paper
is found in my possession, it will be time enough then for me to explain
how I came by it."

This defiance seemed to quite stagger the coroner.

"Do you realize to what this refusal is liable to subject you?"

She dropped her head. "I am afraid that I do; yes, sir."

Mr. Gryce lifted his hand, and softly twirled the tassel of the window
curtain.

"And you still persist?"

She absolutely disdained to rep