“Did it!” Mrs. Ogden’s intonation was eloquent, but she was too intent on gathering information to be switched to another topic, no matter how interesting it might be. “Do pull your chair closer, Mrs. McLane; I never can talk to people at arms’ length. Tell me, don’t you think Ethel is terribly broken up over Jim Patterson’s death?”
“I think it was a frightful shock to her,” admitted Lois. “It—it seemed so unnecessary.”
Mrs. Ogden squirmed in her chair. “My husband walked the floor all night, completely cut up over the result of his carelessness in leaving the cartridges in his desk; but for that James Patterson would be alive today.”
“I think Mr. Ogden takes too much of the blame on his shoulders,” said Lois gently. “He was not responsible for the fire. By the way, have you learned how it started?”
“The fire inspector and the insurance representative attributed it to the crossed electric wires,” Mrs. Ogden moved restlessly. “But they are to make a more thorough investigation. Will you have some tea?” stretching out her hand toward the bell.
“No, thanks,” Lois spoke somewhat hastily. “Dr. McLane will be here very soon to see Ethel, and I must not keep him waiting when he is ready to leave.”
“Your husband was so kind last night,” Mrs. Ogden spoke with genuine feeling. “I don’t know how I could have gotten on without him. He attended to everything, even to interviewing the reporters, and I’m sure that’s why they are not more sensational in their accounts of the fire and poor Jim Patterson’s death.”
“Leonard was glad to do anything that he could for you, Mrs. Ogden,” leaning forward Lois took the older woman’s hand and stroked it gently. Shock and anxiety had left their mark on Mrs. Ogden; her lips quivered and she seized Lois’ kind hand in a spasmodic grip.
“If you only knew all I’ve been through,” she wailed. “Ethel unconscious for so long, and Jim lying there dead. They wouldn’t take him up and place him respectably in bed, but must needs leave him lying on the hall floor like something worthless, until the coroner came. And then they took him to the Morgue—of all places, when he had a large apartment at the Dresden!”
“But it is the law,” Lois whitened; the present tragedy brought back memories of another in which she had been one of the principal figures not so long since. “In case of sudden or violent death, the autopsy has to be held at the Morgue.”