Mortlake: Only impersonally. He knew my friend, and was keenly sympathetic when one was in trouble. Coroner: Could you show the jury the letter you received? Mortlake: I have mislaid it, and cannot make out where it has got to. If you, sir, think it relevant or essential, I will state what the trouble was. Coroner: Was the toothache very violent? Mortlake: I cannot tell. I think not, though he told me it had disturbed his rest the night before. Coroner: What time did you leave him? Mortlake: About twenty to ten. Coroner: And what did you do then? Mortlake: I went out for an hour or so to make some inquiries. Then I returned, and told my landlady I should be leaving by an early train for--for the country. Coroner: And that was the last you saw of the deceased? Mortlake (with emotion): The last. Coroner: How was he when you left him? Mortlake: Mainly concerned about my trouble. Coroner: Otherwise you saw nothing unusual about him? Mortlake: Nothing. Coroner: What time did you leave the house on Tuesday morning? Mortlake: At about five and twenty minutes past four. Coroner: Are you sure that you shut the street door? Mortlake: Quite sure. Knowing my landlady was rather a timid person, I even slipped the bolt of the big lock, which was usually tied back. It was impossible for any one to get in even with a latch-key. Mrs. Drabdump's evidence (which, of course, preceded his) was more important, and occupied a considerable time, unduly eked out by Drabdumpian padding. Thus she not only deposed that Mr. Constant had the toothache, but that it was going to last about a week; in tragic-comic indifference to the radical cure that had been effected. Her account of the last hours of the deceased tallied with Mortlake's, only that she feared Mortlake was quarreling with him over something in the letter that came by the nine o'clock post. Deceased had left the house a little after Mortlake, but had returned before him, and had gone straight to his bedroom. She had not actually seen him come in, having been in the kitchen, but she heard his latch-key, followed by his light step up the stairs. A Juryman: How do you know it was not somebody else? (Sensation, of which the juryman tries to look unconscious.) Witness: He called down to me over the banisters, and says in his sweetish voice: "Be hextra sure to wake me at a quarter to seven, Mrs. Drabdump, or else I shan't get to my tram meeting." (Juryman collapses.) Coroner: And did you wake him? Mrs. Drabdump (breaking down): Oh, my lud, how can you ask? Coroner: There, there, compose yourself. I mean did you try to wake him? Mrs. Drabdump: I have taken in and done for lodgers this seventeen years, my lud, and have always gave satisfaction; and Mr. Mortlake, he wouldn't ha' recommended me otherwise, though I wish to Heaven the poor gentleman had never---- Coroner: Yes, yes, of course. You tried to rouse him?