The coroner, taken aback by this direct attack from one who had hitherto borne all his innuendoes with apparent patience, lost countenance for a moment, but, remembering that in his official capacity he was more than a match for the elegant gentleman, who under other circumstances would have found it only too easy to put him to the blush, he observed with dignity: “Mr. Jeffrey, you are on oath. We certainly have no reason for not believing you.” Mr. Jeffrey bowed. He was probably sorry for his momentary loss of self-control, and gravely, but with eyes bent downward, answered with the abrupt phrase: “Well, then, I will say no.” The coroner shifted his ground. “Will you make the same reply when I ask if the like forbearance was shown toward your wife’s name in the conversation you had with Miss Tuttle immediately afterward?” A halt in the eagerly looked-for reply; a hesitation, momentary indeed, but pregnant with nameless suggestions, caused his answer, when it did come, to lose some of the emphasis he manifestly wished to put into it. “Miss Tuttle was Mrs. Jeffrey’s half-sister. The bond between them was strong. Would she—would I—be apt to speak of my young wife with bitterness?” “That is not an answer to my question, Mr. Jeffrey. I must request a more positive reply.” Miss Tuttle made a move. The strain on all present was so great we could but notice it. He noticed it too, for his brows came together with a quick frown, as he emphatically replied: “There were no recriminations uttered. Mrs. Jeffrey had displeased me and I said so, but I did not forget that I was speaking of my wife and _to_ her sister.” As this was in the highest degree non-committal, the coroner could be excused for persisting. “The conversation, then, was about your wife?” “It was.” “In criticism of her conduct?” “Yes.” “At the ambassador’s ball?” “Yes.” Mr. Jeffrey was a poor hand at lying. That last “yes” came with great effort. The coroner waited, possibly for the echo of this last “yes” to cease; then he remarked with a coldness which lifted at once the veil from his hitherto well disguised antagonism to this witness. “If you will recount to us anything which your wife said or did on that evening which, in your mind, was worthy of all this coil, it might help us to understand the situation.” But the witness made no attempt to do so, and while many of us were ready to pardon him this show of delicacy, others felt that under the circumstances it would have been better had he been more open.