it were, against the world?"

"Perhaps; she felt the death of her husband very much--indeed, has never
been quite the same since she lost him."

"And when was that, if you please?"

"Full fifteen years ago, sir; just before she came to this town."

"Did you know Mr. Clemmens?"

"No, sir; none of us knew him. They were married in some small village
out West, where he died--well, I think she wrote--a month if not less
after their marriage. She was inconsolable for a time, and, though she
consented to come East, refused to take up her abode with any of her
relatives, and so settled in this place, where she has remained ever
since."

The manner of the coroner suddenly changed to one of great
impressiveness.

"Miss Firman," he now asked, "did it ever strike you that the hermit
life she led was due to any fear or apprehension which she may have
secretly entertained?"

"Sir?"

The question was peculiar and no one wondered at the start which the
good woman gave. But what mainly struck Mr. Byrd, and gave to the moment
a seeming importance, was the fact that she was not alone in her
surprise or even her expression of it; that the indefinable stir he had
before observed had again taken place in the crowd before him, and that
this time there was no doubt about its having been occasioned by the
movements of a person whose elbow he could just perceive projecting
beyond the door-way that led into the hall.

But there was no time for speculation as to whom this person might be.
The coroner's questions were every moment growing more rapid, and Miss
Firman's answers more interesting.

"I asked," here the coroner was heard to say, "whether, in your
intercourse with Mrs. Clemmens, you have ever had reason to suppose she
was the victim of any secret or personal apprehension that might have
caused her to seclude herself as she did? Or let me put it in another
way. Can you tell me whether you know of any other person besides this
nephew of hers who is likely to be benefited by Mrs. Clemmens' death?"

"Oh, sir," was the hasty and somewhat excited reply, "you mean young Mr.
Hildreth!"

The way in which this was said, together with the slight flush of
satisfaction or surprise which rose to the coroner's brow, naturally
awoke the slumbering excitement of the crowd and made a small sensation.
A low murmur ran through the rooms, amid which Mr. Byrd thought he heard
a suppressed but bitter exclamation. He could not be sure of it,