"Is this letter -a letter of threat you will remember -the only communication which passed between you and Miss Challoner after this unfortunate passage of arms at the Clermont?""Yes.I had no wish to address her again.I had exhausted in this one outburst whatever humiliation I felt.""And she?Did she give no sign,make you no answer?""None whatever."Then,as if he found it impossible to hide this hurt to his pride,"She did not even seem to consider me worthy the honour of an added rebuke.Such arrogance is,no doubt,commendable in a Challoner."This time his bitterness did not pass unrebuked by the coroner:
"Remember the grey hairs of the only Challoner who can hear you,and respect his grief."Mr.Brotherson bowed.
"I have finished,"said he."I shall have nothing more to say on the subject."And he drew himself up in expectation of the dismissal he evidently thought pending.
But the coroner was not done with him by any means.He had a theory in regard to this lamentable suicide which he hoped to establish by this man's testimony,and,in pursuit of this plan,he not only motioned to Mr.Brotherson to reseat himself,but began at once to open a fresh line of examination by saying:
"You will pardon me,if I press this matter.I have been given to understand that notwithstanding your break with Miss Challoner,you have kept up your visits to the Clermont and were even on the spot at the time of her death.""On the spot?"
"In the hotel,I mean."
"There you are right;I was in the hotel."
"At the time of her death?"
"Very near the time.I remember hearing some disturbance in the lobby behind me,just as I was passing out at the Broadway entrance.""You did,and did not return?"
"Why should I return?I am not a man of much curiosity.There was no reason why I should connect a sudden alarm in the lobby of the Clermont with any cause of special interest to myself."This was so true and the look which accompanied the words was so frank that the coroner hesitated a moment before he said:
"Certainly not,unless -well,to be direct,unless you had just seen Miss Challoner and knew her state of mind and what was likely to follow your abrupt departure.""I had no interview with Miss Challoner."
"But you saw her?Saw her that evening and just before the accident?"Sweetwater's papers rattled;it was the only sound to be heard in that moment of silence.Then -"What do you mean by those words?"inquired Mr.Brotherson,with studied composure."I have said that I had no interview with Miss Challoner.Why do you ask me then,if I saw her?""Because I believe that you did.From a distance possibly,but yet directly and with no possibility of mistake.""Do you put that as a question?"
"I do.Did you see her figure or face that night?""I did."
Nothing -not even the rattling of Sweetwater's papers -disturbed the silence which followed this admission.
"From where?"Dr.Heath asked at last.
"From a point far enough away to make any communication between us impossible.I do not think you will require me to recall the exact spot.""If it were one which made it possible for her to see you as clearly as you could see her,I think it would be very advisable for you to say so."It was -such -a spot.''
"Then I think I can locate it for you,or do you prefer to locate it yourself?""I will locate it myself.I had hoped not to be called upon to mention what I cannot but consider a most unfortunate coincidence.
As a gentleman you will understand my reticence and also why it is a matter of regret to me that with an acumen worthy of your position,you should have discovered a fact which,while it cannot explain Miss Challoner's death,will drag our little affair before the public,and possibly give it a prominence in some minds which I am sure does not belong to it.I met Miss Challoner's eye for one instant from the top of the little staircase running up to the mezzanine.I had yielded thus far to an impulse I had frequently combated,to seek by another interview to retrieve the bad effect which must have been made upon her by my angry note.I knew that she frequently wrote letters in the mezzanine at this hour,and got as far as the top of the staircase in my effort to join her.
But got no further.When I saw her on her feet,with her face turned my way,I remembered the scorn with which she had received my former heart-felt proposals and,without taking another step forward,I turned away from her and fled down the steps and so out of the building by the main entrance.She saw me,for her hand flew up with a startled gesture,but I cannot think that my presence on the same floor with her could have caused her to strike the blow which terminated her life.Why should I?No woman sacrifices her life out of mere regret for the disdain she has shown a man she has taken no pains to understand."His tone and his attitude seemed to invite the concurrence of Dr.
Heath in this statement.But the richness of the one and the grace of the other showed the handsome speaker off to such advantage that the coroner was rather inclined to consider how a woman,even of Miss Challoner's fine taste and careful breeding,might see in such a situation much for regret,if not for active despair and the suicidal act.He gave no evidence of his thought,however,but followed up the one admission made by Mr.Brotherson which he and others must naturally view as of the first importance.
