he positions of all objects, the characteristics
and extent of the wire-netting, the exact posture of the deceased
girl, the exact minute of his visit. He and the Coroner played to each
other like well-rehearsed actors. Mrs. Carlos Smith's ordeal was very
brief, and the Coroner dismissed her with an expression of sympathy
that seemed to issue from his mouth like carved granite. With the
doctor alone the Coroner had become human; the Coroner also was a
doctor. The doctor had talked about a relatively slight extravasation
of blood, and said that death had been instantaneous. Said the
Coroner: "The body was found on the wire-netting; it had fallen from
the chimney. In your opinion, was the fall a contributory cause of
death?" The doctor said, No. "In your opinion death was due to an
extremely small piece of shrapnel which struck the deceased's head
slightly above the left ear, entering the brain?" The doctor said,
Yes.

The Marquis of Lechford had to answer questions as to his parental
relations with his daughter. How long had he been away in the country?
How long had the deceased been living in Lechford House practically
alone? How old was his daughter? Had he given any order to the effect
that nobody was to be on the roof of his house during an air-raid?
Had he given any orders at all as to conduct during an air-raid? The
Coroner sympathised deeply with his lordship's position, and felt
sure that his lordship understood that; but his lordship would
also understand that the policy of heads of households in regard to
air-raids had more than a domestic interest--it had, one might say, a
national interest; and the force of prominent example was one of the
forces upon which the Government counted, and had the right to count,
for help in the regulation of public conduct in these great crises of
the most gigantic war that the world had ever seen. "Now, as to the
wire-netting," had said the Coroner, leaving the subject of the force
of example. He had a perfect plan of the wire-netting in his mind. He
understood that the chimney-stack rose higher than the wire-netting,
and that the wire-netting went round the chimney-stack at a distance
of a foot or more, leaving room so that a person might climb up
the perpendicular ladder. If a person fell from the top of the
chimney-stack it was a chance whether that person fell on the
wire-netting, or through the space between the wire-netting and the
chimney on to the roof itself. The jury