“Oh, I can’t. I want to stay here. Send Norma,—no, she’s no good,—perhaps Mr. Tracy will take Milly down. He’s awfully kind, and ready to do anything.”
As Milly declared herself now willing, the three went downstairs. They found the others in the hall, the Doctor still there, and the tea things still about. Eve gave Milly some tea, and took some herself.
“I’ll have to call in the coroner,” Doctor Wayburn was saying; “it isn’t apparently a murder, and yet it’s a mysterious death,—they both are. Yes, the county physician must be summoned.”
The Doctor had gotten over the first panic of surprise, and began to feel a sense of importance. Such a case had never come near him before, and the whole affair gave him a pleasant feeling of responsibility and foreshadowed his prominence in the public eye.
The suggestion of a coroner was resented by all who listened, but the Doctor’s word was law in the case, so they unwillingly consented.
“I think I’d better go down to New York to-night,” said Braye. “There are so many things to see to, so many people to notify, the reporters to look after, and—undertaking arrangements to be made. Unless you want to go, Wynne?”
“No,” said Landon, “it’s better for you, Rudolph. But I wish you’d take Milly. Take her to her mother’s and let her get out of this atmosphere. Will you go, Milly?”
“I did want to, Wynne, when I was upstairs. But, now, with people all about,—if Norma will stay here, too, I’d rather stay with you. When are you going down, Wynne?”
“I don’t know, dear. We’ll have to see how things turn out. Well, you go ahead, Rudolph, you’ll have to hustle to get over to the train. And there are a few matters I wish you’d look after for me.”
The two men went off to discuss these matters, and then Doctor Wayburn, who had been telephoning, announced that the coroner could not come until the next day, as he was in another township attending to some duties.