h, as
he had already said, sitting at the table, dead.

"And the ladies?"

"Oh, they followed us up and came into the room and Miss Eleanore
fainted away."

"And the other one,--Miss Mary, I believe they call her?"

"I don't remember anything about her; I was so busy fetching water to
restore Miss Eleanore, I didn't notice."

"Well, how long was it before Mr. Leavenworth was carried into the next
room?"

"Almost immediate, as soon as Miss Eleanore recovered, and that was as
soon as ever the water touched her lips."

"Who proposed that the body should be carried from the spot?"

"She, sir. As soon as ever she stood up she went over to it and looked
at it and shuddered, and then calling Mr. Harwell and me, bade us carry
him in and lay him on the bed and go for the doctor, which we did."

"Wait a moment; did she go with you when you went into the other room?"

"No, sir."

"What did she do?"

"She stayed by the library table."

"What doing?"

"I couldn't see; her back was to me."

"How long did she stay there?"

"She was gone when we came back."

"Gone from the table?"

"Gone from the room."

"Humph! when did you see her again?"

"In a minute. She came in at the library door as we went out."

"Anything in her hand?"

"Not as I see."

"Did you miss anything from the table?"

"I never thought to look, sir. The table was nothing to me. I was only
thinking of going for the doctor, though I knew it was of no use."

"Whom did you leave in the room when you went out?"

"The cook, sir, and Molly, sir, and Miss Eleanore."

"Not Miss Mary?"

"No, sir."

"Very well. Have the jury any questions to put to this man?"

A movement at once took place in that profound body.

"I should like to ask a few," exclaimed a weazen-faced, excitable little
man whom I had before noticed shifting in his seat in a restless manner
strongly suggestive of an intense but hitherto repressed desire to
interrupt the proceedings.

"Very well, sir," returned Thomas.

But the juryman stopping to draw a deep breath, a large and decidedly
pompous man who sat at his right hand seized the opportunity to inquire
in a round, listen-to-me sort of voice:

"You say you have been in the family for two years. Was it what you
might call a united family?"

"United?"

"Affectionate, you know,--on good terms with each other." And the
juryman lifted the very long and heavy watch-chain that hung across
his vest as if that as well