"Did you get any idea as to his age?"
"The impression he made was that of being a young man."
"And his height?"
"Was medium, and his figure slight and elegant. He moved as a gentleman moves; of this I can speak with great positiveness."
"Do you think you could identify him, Miss Butterworth, if you should see him?"
I hesitated, as I perceived that the whole swaying mass eagerly awaited my reply. I even turned my head because I saw others doing so; but I regretted this when I found that I, as well as others, was glancing towards the door beyond which the Van Burnams were supposed to sit. To cover up the false move I had made—for I had no wish as yet to centre suspicion upon anybody—I turned my face quickly back to the crowd and declared in as emphatic a tone as I could command:
"I have thought I could do so if I saw him under the same circumstances as those in which my first impression was made. But lately I have begun to doubt even that. I should never dare trust to my memory in this regard."
The Coroner looked disappointed, and so did the people around me.
"It is a pity," remarked the Coroner, "that you did not see more plainly. And, now, how did these persons gain an entrance into the house?"
I answered in the most succinct way possible.