'Pray take it, my dear Duval, and satisfy yourself at once,' said Brighthurst, handing the paper across to Bryan; 'I can fully apprehend your anxiety.' Bryan took the journal, and, in the midst of a sympathetic silence, turned it over until he came upon the spot which he was seeking--a description of the proceedings at the coroner's inquest. In a broken voice he read out certain details with which the readers of this story are already familiar: the finding of the body on the landing-place of the warehouse, the evidence of the outdoor clerk, the two policemen, and the various persons present at the scene, the fly-driver, who recognised the victim as one of his customers, and the manager of the Adelphi, who gave evidence that the body was that of Mr. Foster, who had been staying at the hotel. 'There is no doubt at all about it,' said Bryan Duval, laying down the paper for a minute, his eyes filling with tears. 'It was poor Foster; it was our poor friend!' 'It is too dreadful to think of,' said Miss Montressor, giving way to her grief. 'Who can the murderer be? What can have been the motive for such a deed?' cried Duval, after reading a little farther. 'Foster was the kindest, gentlest soul in the world--a man who could not possibly have had an enemy; besides, he knew but few people in England, and none, I should have thought, in Liverpool.' 'Perhaps he was in the habit of sporting his money,' said Mr. O'Gog; 'there are terrible thieves in them Liverpool taverns.' 'No, that could not have been,' said Bryan, pointing to a passage in the paper; 'for it says here that though no papers, cards, or letters were found upon the body, his purse, containing several sovereigns and some silver, keys, penknife, and pencil, were found in the pockets untouched.' 'That's a strange circumstance,' said Mr. Brighthurst, looking at it with the professional eye of an editorial writer. 'My experience leads me to believe that there are two principal motives which lead to the commission of murder--lust of gain or desire for vengeance. By the finding of the purse, the first motive is wanting in this instance; and as regards the second, you tell me he had very few acquaintances in England, and was the last man in the world likely to have any enemies, much less one fierce and implacable enough to do such a deed as this.' 'He was the kindest-hearted man in the world,' sobbed Miss Montressor; 'always willing to do everybody a service, and more like a woman than a man in the soft sweetness of his disposition.'