“Do you know who those models were?”
“They were professional models. The men, I think, were all Italians, and some of the women were too. I believe my father kept a list of them in his address book.”
“Was he working from a model on the night of his death?”
“No. He was making the moulds for a porcelain statuette.”
“Did you ever hear that he had any kind of trouble with his models?”
“Never. He seemed always on the best of terms with them, and he used to speak of them most appreciatively.”
“What sort of persons are professional models? Should you say they are a decent, well-conducted class?”
“Yes. They are usually most respectable, hard-working people; and, of course, they are sober and decent in their habits or they would be of no use for their professional duties.”
The coroner meditated on these replies with a speculative eye on the witness. After a short pause, he began along another line.
“Did deceased ever carry about with him property of any considerable value?”