owe it to the jury, if not to the parties themselves, to make Miss
Tuttle's position in this household thoroughly understood. Do you
think she was a welcome visitor in this house?"

The girl pursed up her lips, glanced at the lady and gentleman
whose feelings she was supposed to pass comment on, and seemed to
lose heart. Then, as they failed to respond to her look of appeal,
she strove to get the better of her sense of shame and, with a
somewhat injured air, replied:

"I can only repeat what I once heard said about this by Mr.
Jeffrey himself. Miss Tuttle had just left the diningroom and Mrs.
Jeffrey was standing in one of her black moods, with her hand on
the top of her chair, ready to go but forgetting to do so. I was
there, but neither of them noticed me; he was staring at her, and
she was looking down. Neither seemed at ease. Suddenly he spoke
and asked, 'Why must Cora remain with us?' She started and her
look grew strange and frightened. 'Because I want her to,' she
cried. 'I can not live without Cora."'

These words, so different from what we were expecting, caused a
sensation in the room and consequently a stir. As the noise of
shifting feet and moving heads began to be heard in all directions,
Miss Tuttle's head drooped a little, but Francis Jeffrey did not
betray any sign of feeling or even of attention. The coroner,
embarrassed, perhaps, by this exhibition of silent misery so near
him, hesitated a little before he put his next question. Loretta,
on the contrary, had gathered courage with every word she spoke and
now looked ready for anything.