h now, sir, since I came, on Mrs.
Wilson's ricommindation, to that very front door, and----"

"Never mind the front door, but tell us why you left this Mrs. Wilson?"

"Shure, and it was she as left me, being as she went sailing to the
ould country the same day when on her recommendation I came to this very
front door--"

"Well, well; no matter about that. You have been in Mr. Leavenworth's
family a year?"

"Yes, sir."

"And liked it? found him a good master?"

"Och, sir, niver have I found a better, worse luck to the villain as
killed him. He was that free and ginerous, sir, that many 's the time
I have said to Hannah--" She stopped, with a sudden comical gasp of
terror, looking at her fellow-servants like one who had incautiously
made a slip. The coroner, observing this, inquired hastily:

"Hannah? Who is Hannah?"

The cook, drawing her roly-poly figure up into some sort of shape in
her efforts to appear unconcerned, exclaimed boldly: "She? Oh, only the
ladies' maid, sir."

"But I don't see any one here answering to that description. You didn't
speak of any one by the name of Hannah, as belonging to the house," said
he, turning to Thomas.

"No, sir," the latter replied, with a bow and a sidelong look at the
red-cheeked girl at his side. "You asked me who were in the house at the
time the murder was discovered, and I told you."

"Oh," cried the coroner, satirically; "used to police courts, I see."
Then, turning back to the cook, who had all this while been rolling
her eyes in a vague fright about the room, inquired, "And where is this
Hannah?"

"Shure, sir, she's gone."

"How long since?"

The cook caught her breath hysterically. "Since last night."

"What time last night?"

"Troth, sir, and I don't know. I don't know anything about it."

"Was she dismissed?"

"Not as I knows on; her clothes is here."

"Oh, her clothes are here. At what hour did you miss her?"

"I didn't miss her. She was here last night, and she isn't here this
morning, and so I says she 's gone."

"Humph!" cried the coroner, casting a slow glance down the room, while
every one present looked as if a door had suddenly opened in a closed
wall.

"Where did this girl sleep?"

The cook, who had been fumbling uneasily with her apron, looked up.

"Shure, we all sleeps at the top of the house, sir."

"In one room?"

Slowly. "Yes, sir."

"Did she come up to the room last night?"

"Yes, sir."

"At what hour?"

"Shure,