The remainder of the day was taken up in trying to prove a similarity between Mrs. Van Burnam's handwriting and that of Mrs. James Pope as seen in the register of the Hotel D---- and on the order sent to Altman's. But the only conclusion reached was that the latter might be the former disguised, and even on this point the experts differed. XIII. HOWARD VAN BURNAM. The gentleman who stepped from the carriage and entered Mr. Van Burnam's house at twelve o'clock that night produced so little impression upon me that I went to bed satisfied that no result would follow these efforts at identification. And so I told Mr. Gryce when he arrived next morning. But he seemed by no means disconcerted, and merely requested that I would submit to one more trial. To which I gave my consent, and he departed. I could have asked him a string of questions, but his manner did not invite them, and for some reason I was too wary to show an interest in this tragedy superior to that felt by every right-thinking person connected with it. At ten o'clock I was in my old seat in the court-room. The same crowd with different faces confronted me, amid which the twelve stolid countenances of the jury looked like old friends. Howard Van Burnam was the witness called, and as he came forward and stood in full view of us all, the interest of the occasion reached its climax. His countenance wore a reckless look that did not serve to prepossess him with the people at whose mercy he stood. But he did not seem to care, and waited for the Coroner's questions with an air of ease which was in direct contrast to the drawn and troubled faces of his father and brother just visible in the background. Coroner Dahl surveyed him a few minutes before speaking, then he quietly asked if he had seen the dead body of the woman who had been found lying under a fallen piece of furniture in his father's house. He replied that he had. "Before she was removed from the house or after it?" "After." "Did you recognize it? Was it the body of any one you know?" "I do not think so." "Has your wife, who was missing yesterday, been heard from yet, Mr. Van Burnam?" "Not to my knowledge, sir." "Had she not--that is, your wife--a complexion similar to that of the dead woman just alluded to?" "She had a fair skin and brown hair, if that is what you mean. But these attributes are common to too many women for me to give them any weight in an attempted identification of this importance." "Had they no other similar points of a less general character? Was not your wife of a slight and graceful build, such as is attributed to the subject of this inquiry?" "My wife was slight and she was graceful, common attributes also." "And your wife had a scar?" "Yes." "On the left ankle?" "Yes." "Which the deceased also has?" "That I do not know. They say so, but I had no interest in looking." "Why, may I ask? Did you not think it a remarkable coincidence?"