"Did you know at the time what that quarrel was about?"
His face got a dull red and he said low.
"Yes, she told me of it in a letter she wrote me immediately afterward."
Then he told how on Saturday night he had received a special delivery letter from her, telling of the quarrel and agreeing to the elopement. That letter he had destroyed. He answered it the next morning, she having directed him to bring it in himself and deliver it to Virginie, who would meet him opposite Corwin's drugstore. This he did, the letter being the one already in evidence.
The Coroner asked him to explain the sentence which said "Don't disappoint me—don't do what you did the other time." He looked straight in front of him and answered:
"We had made a plan to elope once before and she had backed out."
"Do you know why?"
"It was too—too unusual—too unconventional. When it came to the scandal of an elopement she hung back."
"Is it your opinion that the quarrel with Dr. Fowler made her agree the second time?"
"I know nothing about that."