"Then he is dead; are you sure—quite sure?"
"They all said so; the doctor, all that saw him!"
"You did not see him then?"
"Yes—yes!" answered the young girl, closing her eyes with a pang. "I saw him—I saw him!"
"Why did your grandfather kill him? Had Leicester done him any wrong?"
"I do not know what wrong he had ever done," answered Julia; "but I am certain if he had injured him ever so much, grandpa would not have harmed a hair of his head."
"Who did kill him then?" said the woman sharply.
"I think," said Julia, in a low, firm voice—"I think that he killed himself!"
"No. It could not be that!" muttered the woman, gloomily. "No doubt the old man did what others had better cause for doing; tell me how it happened!"
Julia saw that the woman was growing pale around the lips as she spoke; her hand also looked blue and cold as it shaded her face.