“A mere formality,” murmured his visitor. “Oh, very well!” growled Jeremy. He departed and presently returned, fully and uncomfortably garmented. Again Mr. Arthur Welton inspected him carefully. “You do not wear mourning, I observe.” “I do _not_.” “Why not, may I ask?” “Don’t believe in it. It’s a pagan custom and usually hypocritical.” “I cannot agree with you,” retorted the other weightily. “On principle, I cannot agree with you. In the present instance, would it be an evidence of hypocrisy to have shown a formal mark of sorrow for the loss of your great-aunt?” “It would.” “You felt, then, no affection or esteem for the late Miss Editha Greer?” “What business is that of yours?” “It is so much the business of my firm that I have traveled a thousand miles to ascertain your attitude.” “The condition!” cried Jeremy, aloud. “I beg your pardon,” he added. “If you had told me that this was a legal cross-examination--” “Not precisely that, Mr. Robson. I should have thought that you would appreciate its purport,” returned the other in a tone of grave rebuke. “I do.” There was a grim set to the other’s lips. “I know Aunt Edie well enough to appreciate her practical jokes.” “Really, Mr. Robson! I am bound to protest against the assumption that our late client--” “All right! All right! I withdraw it. Fire ahead.” Mr. Arthur Weston looked delicately but impressively pained. “You felt no affection or esteem for the deceased?” he inquired through pursed lips. “I liked the old lady, in a way,” confessed Jeremy reminiscently. “She had such a cheery spice of the devil in her. And her tongue! And her pen! Oh, Lord! What an editorial writer she’d have made, if she could have kept out of jail.” “I need hardly tell you, Mr. Robson, that she gravely disapproved of your journalistic predilections.” “Nobody need tell me after she got through. Nobody need tell anybody anything that my Great-Aunt Greer had told ’em first.” “In order that the record may be clear, let me put this to you. It is admitted that you disapprove of symbolical mourning; that you do not practice it. If you did practice it, would you have worn mourning for the deceased Miss Greer?” “If the dog had n’t stopped to scratch the flea would he have caught the rabbit?” retorted the irreverent Mr. Robson. “I must insist upon a reply.” “No; I certainly shouldn’t. Why should I? I’m not grieving over Aunt Edie’s death. She’s no real loss to me. Nor gain, either, now,” he added with a rueful grin. “I’m not going to pretend. So, you see, there’s not even a mitigating circumstance.” “Mitigating circ--”