"Mr. Van Burnam, it is disagreeable for me to go into family matters, but if you have had no quarrel with your brother, how comes it that you and he have had so little intercourse of late?" "He has been in Connecticut and I at Long Branch. Is not that a good answer, sir?" "Good, but not good enough. You have a common office in New York, have you not?" "Certainly, the firm's office." "And you sometimes meet there, even while residing in different localities?" "Yes, our business calls us in at times and then we meet, of course." "Do you talk when you meet?" "Talk?" "Of other matters besides business, I mean. Are your relations friendly? Do you show the same spirit towards each other as you did three years ago, say?" "We are older; perhaps we are not quite so voluble." "But do you feel the same?" "No. I see you will have it, and so I will no longer hold back the truth. We are not as brotherly in our intercourse as we used to be; but there is no animosity between us. I have a decided regard for my brother." This was said quite nobly, and I liked him for it, but I began to feel that perhaps it had been for the best after all that I had never been intimate with the family. But I must not forestall either events or my opinions. "Is there any reason"--it is the Coroner, of course, who is speaking--"why there should be any falling off in your mutual confidence? Has your brother done anything to displease you?" "We did not like his marriage." "Was it an unhappy one?" "It was not a suitable one." "Did you know Mrs. Van Burnam well, that you say this?" "Yes, I knew her, but the rest of the family did not." "Yet they shared in your disapprobation?" "They felt the marriage more than I did. The lady--excuse me, I never like to speak ill of the sex--was not lacking in good sense or virtue, but she was not the person we had a right to expect Howard to marry." "And you let him see that you thought so?" "How could we do otherwise?" "Even after she had been his wife for some months?" "We could not like her." "Did your brother--I am sorry to press this matter--ever show that he felt your change of conduct towards him?" "I find it equally hard to answer," was the quick reply. "My brother is of an affectionate nature, and he has some, if not all, of the family's pride. I think he did feel it, though he never said so. He is not without loyalty to his wife." "Mr. Van Burnam, of whom does the firm doing business under the name of Van Burnam & Sons consist?" "Of the three persons mentioned." "No others?" "No." "Has there ever been in your hearing any threat made by the senior partner of dissolving this firm as it stands?"