it was ten when we all came up. I heard the clock a-striking."

"Did you observe anything unusual in her appearance?"

"She had a toothache, sir."

"Oh, a toothache; what, then? Tell me all she did."

But at this the cook broke into tears and wails.

"Shure, she didn't do nothing, sir. It wasn't her, sir, as did anything;
don't you believe it. Hannah is a good girl, and honest, sir, as ever
you see. I am ready to swear on the Book as how she never put her hand
to the lock of his door. What should she for? She only went down to Miss
Eleanore for some toothache-drops, her face was paining her that awful;
and oh, sir----"

"There, there," interrupted the coroner, "I am not accusing Hannah of
anything. I only asked you what she did after she reached your room. She
went downstairs, you say. How long after you went up?"

"Troth, sir, I couldn't tell; but Molly says----"

"Never mind what Molly says. _You_ didn't see her go down?"

"No, sir."

"Nor see her come back?"

"No, sir."

"Nor see her this morning?"

"No, sir; how could I when she 's gone?"

"But you did see, last night, that she seemed to be suffering with
toothache?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very well; now tell me how and when you first became acquainted with
the fact of Mr. Leavenworth's death."

But her replies to this question, while over-garrulous, contained but
little information; and seeing this, the coroner was on the point of
dismissing her, when the little juror, remembering an admission she had
made, of having seen Miss Eleanore Leavenworth coming out of the library
door a few minutes after Mr. Leavenworth's body had been carried into
the next room, asked if her mistress had anything in her hand at the
time.

"I don't know, sir. Faith!" she suddenly exclaimed, "I believe she
did have a piece of paper. I recollect, now, seeing her put it in her
pocket."

The next witness was Molly, the upstairs girl.

Molly O'Flanagan, as she called herself, was a rosy-cheeked,
black-haired, pert girl of about eighteen, who under ordinary
circumstances would have found herself able to answer, with a due degree
of smartness, any question which might have been addressed to her. But
fright will sometimes cower the stoutest heart, and Molly, standing
before the coroner at this juncture, presented anything but a reckless
appearance, her naturally rosy cheeks blanching at the first word
addressed to her, and her head falling forward on her breast in a
confusion