"Oh," he returned, "the secretary! The coroner has been asking for
you, sir."

"The coroner is here, then?"

"Yes; the jury have just gone up-stairs to view the body; would
you like to follow them?"

"No, it is not necessary. I have merely come in the hope of being
of some assistance to the young ladies. Mr. Veeley is away."

"And you thought the opportunity too good to be lost," he went on;
"just so. Still, now that you are here, and as the case promises to be
a marked one, I should think that, as a rising young lawyer, you would
wish to make yourself acquainted with it in all its details. But follow
your own judgment."

I made an effort and overcame my repugnance. "I will go," said I.

"Very well, then, follow me."

But just as I set foot on the stairs I heard the jury descending,
so, drawing back with Mr. Gryce into a recess between the reception
room and the parlor, I had time to remark:

"The young man says it could not have been the work of a burglar."

"Indeed!" fixing his eye on a door-knob near by.