"In the first place, please tell us how you came to spend two nights in an unoccupied apartment?" "I suppose you already know," she answered, a trifle bitterly, "that I arrived here unexpectedly on Tuesday afternoon?" The Coroner made a motion of assent. "I had reached the city earlier in the day, and had meant to catch the five o'clock train to Bar Harbor. As I had several errands to do, I sent my maid ahead to the Grand Central Depot with orders to engage a stateroom and check my luggage. I forgot to notice how the time was passing till I caught sight of a clock in Madison Square pointing to eight minutes to five. I jumped into a hansom, but got to the station just in time to see the train steam away, with my maid hanging distractedly out of a window." She paused a moment. "A gentleman happened to be with me," she continued with downcast eyes, "so we consulted together as to what I had better do. On looking up the trains I found that I could not get back to my mother's country place till nine o'clock that evening, and then should have to leave home again at a frightfully early hour so as to catch the morning train to Bar Harbor. Otherwise I should be obliged to wait over till the following afternoon and take a long night journey by myself, which I knew my mother would not wish me to do. Altogether, it seemed so much simpler to remain in town if I could only find a place to go to. Suddenly, our apartment occurred to me. Of course, I knew that the world would not approve of my staying here alone; nevertheless, I decided to do so." "You went out again very soon after your arrival, did you not?" asked the Coroner. "Yes," she answered, "as there was no way of getting any food here, my friend" (she hesitated slightly over the last word) "had little difficulty in persuading me to dine with him at a quiet restaurant in the neighbourhood." "Did the gentleman return to the Rosemere after dinner?" "Yes." "And did he leave you then?" Miss Derwent hesitated a moment, then, throwing her head back she answered proudly: "No!" But a deep crimson again suffused her cheek, and she added almost apologetically: "It was all so unconventional that I did not see why I should draw the line at his spending the evening with me. He was a very intimate friend." "Why do you use the past tense?" asked Mr. Merritt. She cast a little frightened glance in his direction, evidently startled at being caught up so quickly: "We--we had a very serious disagreement," she murmured. "Was the disagreement so serious as to put an end to your friendship?" inquired the detective. "Yes," she replied curtly, while an angry light came into her eyes. "At what time did the gentleman leave you?" resumed the Coroner. "It was very late;--after eleven, I think." "And you have not seen him again since then?" "Certainly not," she replied. "Why did you not carry out your first intention of leaving the city on the following morning?"