The answer was stateliness itself, and we were not surprised to see the coroner look a trifle baffled; but, recovering himself, he said:
“Miss Leavenworth, I must ask you again, whether you did or did not take anything from that table?”
She folded her arms. “I decline answering the question,” she quietly said.
“Pardon me,” he rejoined: “it is necessary that you should.”
Her lip took a still more determined curve. “When any suspicious paper is found in my possession, it will be time enough then for me to explain how I came by it.”
This defiance seemed to quite stagger the coroner.
“Do you realize to what this refusal is liable to subject you?”
She dropped her head. “I am afraid that I do; yes, sir.”
Mr. Gryce lifted his hand, and softly twirled the tassel of the window curtain.
“And you still persist?”