“You said that Sir Philip and Mr. Thoyne disagreed—did you learn the cause of the—?”
This brought Thoyne once again to his feet and I did not wonder at it. The coroner had evidently his own particular method of conducting an inquiry.
“Once again I protest, Mr. Coroner,” he said, his face flushed darkly with anger. “This was a purely private conversation and had nothing to do with—”
The coroner took absolutely no notice of him this time but simply repeated his question to Mrs. Halfleet though in a slightly different form.
“Did you gather over what it was that Mr. Thoyne and Sir Philip Clevedon—quarrelled?”
“There was no quarrel,” Thoyne interjected.
“It was over—a lady,” Mrs. Halfleet responded slowly.
I began now to see something of the drift of this apparently irregular questioning. There was more behind it all than appeared to the casual observer. I glanced almost furtively at Miss Kitty Clevedon but found her perfectly calm and tranquil though her face was dead white.
“Was the lady’s name mentioned?”
“No.”