But the Coroner, explaining that it was a mere formality, motioned me to stand aside in favor of the doctor, who seemed anxious to approach nearer the spot where the dead woman lay. This I was about to do when a sudden thought struck me, and I reached out my hand for the hat. "Let me look at it for a moment," said I. Mr. Gryce at once handed it over, and I took a good look at it inside and out. "It is pretty badly crushed," I observed, "and does not present a very fresh appearance, but for all that it has been worn but once." "How do you know?" questioned the Coroner. "Let the other Richmond inform you," was my grimly uttered reply, as I gave it again into the detective's hand. There was a murmur about me, whether of amusement or displeasure, I made no effort to decide. I was finding out something for myself, and I did not care what they thought of me. "Neither has she worn this dress long," I continued; "but that is not true of the shoes. They are not old, but they have been acquainted with the pavement, and that is more than can be said of the hem of this gown. There are no gloves on her hands; a few minutes elapsed then before the assault; long enough for her to take them off." "Smart woman!" whispered a voice in my ear; a half-admiring, half-sarcastic voice that I had no difficulty in ascribing to Mr. Gryce. "But are you sure she wore any? Did you notice that her hand was gloved when she came into the house?" "No," I answered, frankly; "but so well-dressed a woman would not enter a house like this, without gloves." "It was a warm night," some one suggested. "I don't care. You will find her gloves as you have her hat; and you will find them with the fingers turned inside out, just as she drew them from her hand. So much I will concede to the warmth of the weather." "Like these, for instance," broke in a quiet voice. Startled, for a hand had appeared over my shoulder dangling a pair of gloves before my eyes, I cried out, somewhat too triumphantly I own: "Yes, yes, just like those! Did you pick them up here? Are they hers?" "You say that this is the way hers should look." "And I repeat it." "Then allow me to pay you my compliments. These were picked up here." "But where?" I cried. "I thought I had looked this carpet well over." He smiled, not at me but at the gloves, and the thought crossed me that he felt as if something more than the gloves was being turned inside out. I therefore pursed my mouth, and determined to stand more on my guard. "It is of no consequence," I assured him; "all such matters will come out at the inquest." Mr. Gryce nodded, and put the gloves back in his pocket. With them he seemed to pocket some of his geniality and patience. "All these facts have been gone over before you came in," said he, which statement I beg to consider as open to doubt. The doctor, who had hardly moved a muscle during all this colloquy, now rose from his kneeling position beside the girl's head.