“No. The secretary wrote his few business letters, kept the accounts and executed any commissions, besides doing the various things that the master of the house would ordinarily have done. He is the son of an old friend of my husband’s and he came to us when his father died.”
“And Miss Norris? What was her position in the household?”
“She lived with us as a guest at my husband’s invitation. She was the daughter of his first wife’s sister, and he, more or less informally, adopted her as he had no children of his own.”
“Deceased was a widower, then, when you married him?”
“Yes. His wife had been dead about two years.”
“What was his age when he died?”
“He had just turned fifty-seven.”
“On what sort of terms was deceased with the members of his household?”
“On the best of terms with them all. He was an undemonstrative man and rather cool and reserved with strangers and distinctly solitary and self-contained. But he was a kind and generous man and all the household, including the servants, were devoted to him.”
“Was deceased engaged in any business or profession?”