first perceive his entrance, as he was standing with
his back to the door. The paper parcel he, the butler, had just before
delivered was lying open on the table, and Mr. Everett held in one hand a
flat tin flask--the witness had no doubt the same found in the
cabinet--and in the other a note, which he was reading. He, the witness,
coughed, to attract Mr. Everett's attention, who hurriedly turned round,
clapped down the flask and the note, shuffling them under the paper
wrapper, as if to conceal them, and then, in a very confused manner, and
his face as red as flame, asked witness what he wanted there? Witness
thought this behavior very strange at the time; but the incident soon
passed from his mind, and he had thought no more of it till the finding
of the paper and flask as described by the other witnesses."

Mr. Frederick Everett, who had manifested the strangest impassability, a
calmness as of despair, throughout the inquiry, which perplexed and
disheartened Mr. Sharpe, whose services had been retained by Captain
Everett, allowed even this mischievous evidence to pass without a word of
comment or explanation; and he was, as a matter of course, fully
committed for the wilful murder of his relative. The chain of
circumstantial evidence, motive included, was, it was felt, complete--not
a link was wanting.

These were the chief incidents disclosed to me by Mr. Sharpe during our
long and painful consultation. Of the precise nature of the terrible
suspicions which haunted and disturbed me, I shall only in this place say
that neither Mr. Sharpe, nor, consequently, myself, would in all
probability have guessed or glanced at them, but for the persistent
assertions of Miss Carrington, that her lover was madly sacrificing
himself from some chimerical motive of honor or duty.

"You do not know, Mr. Sharpe, as I do," she would frequently exclaim with
tearful vehemence, "the generous, child-like simplicity, the chivalric
enthusiasm, of his character, his utter abnegation of self, and readiness
on all occasions to sacrifice his own ease, his own wishes, to forward
the happiness of others; and, above all, his fantastic notions of
honor--duty, if you will--which would, I feel assured, prompt him to
incur any peril, death itself, to shield from danger any one who had
claims upon him either of blood or of affection. You know to whom my
suspicions point; and how dreadful to think that one so young, so brave,
so pious, and so true, sh