"Oh, he likes his comfort, and he has had it too. Agatha never stinted him."
"But why do you think her death was due to her having money?"
"She had a large sum in the house, and there are those in town who knew this."
"And is it gone?"
"That we shall know later."
As the coroner arrived at this moment, the minister's curiosity had to wait. Fortunately for his equanimity, no one had the presumption to ask him to leave the room.
The coroner was a man of but few words, and but little given to emotion.
Yet they were surprised at his first question:
"Who is the young woman standing outside there, the only one in the yard?"
Mr. Sutherland, moving rapidly to the window, drew aside the shade.
"It is Miss Page, my housekeeper's niece," he explained. "I do not understand her interest in this affair. She followed me here from the house and could hardly be got to leave this room, into which she intruded herself against my express command."