CHAPTER XXVIII
WHICH TELLS OF AN UNEXPECTED TURN OF EVENTS
It seems that coroner and jury had not spent quite so much time over luncheon as the more or less interested spectators. When the crowd began to file back again into the seats, the coroner had already examined and dismissed one witness and was questioning another.
The past and present servants of the Grosvenor Square household would all have to pass before the coroner during the course of this long afternoon. It was only two o'clock and already the gas had to be lighted—two incandescent burners just above the coroner's table—hard, uncompromising lights, that threw a sickly green tinge on every face and cast deep black shadows under every eye.
It was this light no doubt that made Luke's face seem positively ghastly to Louisa: it looked almost like a death-mask, so deep and cavernous did the eyes appear, and so hollow the cheeks. He was sitting in his usual attitude, with arms folded, between Mr. Dobson and one of the women in seedy black whose presence here had puzzled every one.
Old Parker, ex-butler to Lord Radclyffe, was giving evidence. He had a tale to tell, how Mr. de Mountford "went on awful" when he—the innocent, well-drilled servant—had thought it his duty to introduce Mr. Philip into his lordship's presence.
"Just think of it, your honour," he exclaimed, "his lordship's rightful heir."
Then he added with calm effrontery:
"Mr. Luke 'e give me the sack then and there! He was that wild!"
Just a paltry, silly, meaningless revenge. The death-mask on Luke's face relaxed for a moment when he looked on the fat creature standing before the jury, vainly trying to look pompous and self-righteous, and only succeeding in being a liar.