ecies of reverence, which they
would soon outgrow, to the official jesting of the coroner. Others were
squabbling over the right and title to certain chairs which possessed
the extraordinary advantage of being a foot or two nearer the coroner
than the other chairs. This is a grave cause of dispute among the
reporters, and has been known to give rise to a great many hard words,
and threats of subsequent chastisements, which are always indefinitely
postponed.

The coroner nodded, and said "good morning" to the comers, and assumed a
temporary official dignity, by taking down his right leg from the arm of
the chair over which it gracefully depended. He also fortified himself,
by thrusting a sizable chew into a corner of his mouth, as if he were
carefully loading a pistol.

But neither the coroner, nor the jury, nor the reporters, nor the few
private citizens who had obtained entrance by special dispensation, and
sat gaping about the room, attracted the attention of the prisoner.
Before him was one in whose presence all other persons faded into
nothingness--the fair disturber of his peaceful life--the arbitress of
his fate--Patty Minford.

CHAPTER VII.

PET AS A WITNESS.

Little Pet sat on the low stool which she had always occupied, and which
Marcus, in his strange sentimentality, had always considered sacred to
her. She was veiled; but, through the thick gauze, he could see that her
beautiful face was deathly pale. Her slender frame shook with little
convulsions, that made the chair rattle.

"Be calm, my dear child," said a stout, self-possessed woman who sat by
her side, and held a bottle of salts conspicuously in her hand.
"Remember, you have only to tell the trewth, and let the consekences
fall where they may. Tell the trewth, as the old sayin' is, and shame
the de--you know who."

Mrs. Crull--for she it was--checked herself with a neat cough. Her
three months' private education seemed to have been lost upon her. She
could never speak correctly out of Miss Pillbody's sight. Fortunately,
her heart needed no education. She had taken the poor orphan girl to her
home, and been a mother to her. In that phrase there is an horizonless
world of love.

The deep, manly voice of Mrs. Crull carried assurance to the sinking
heart of Patty. She took the extended hand, and pressed it, deriving
strength from the contact of that strong, positive nature.

"If you please, Mr. Cronner," said Mrs. Crull, "I think you'd bette