“Never, to my knowledge.”
“No jewellery, plate, or valuable material?”
“No. His work was practically all in plaster or wax. He did no goldsmith’s work and he used no precious material.”
“Did he ever have any considerable sums of money about him?”
“No. He received all his payments by cheque and he made his payments in the same way. His habit was to carry very little money on his person—usually not more than one or two pounds.”
Once more the coroner reflected profoundly. It seemed to me that he was trying to elicit some fact—I could not imagine what—and was failing utterly. At length, after another puzzled look at the witness, he turned to the jury and inquired if any of them wished to put any questions; and when they had severally shaken their heads he thanked Miss D’Arblay for the clear and straightforward way in which she had given her evidence and released her.
While the examination had been proceeding, I had allowed my eyes to wander round the room with some curiosity: for this was the first time that I had ever been present at an inquest. From the jury, the witnesses in waiting and the reporters—among whom I tried to identify Dr. Thorndyke’s stenographer—my attention was presently transferred to the spectators. There were only a few of them, but I found myself wondering why there should be any. What kind of person attends as a spectator at an ordinary inquest such as this appeared to be? The newspaper reports of the finding of the body were quite unsensational and promised no startling developments. Finally I decided that they were probably local residents who had some knowledge of the deceased and were just indulging their neighbourly curiosity.
Among them my attention was particularly attracted by a middle-aged woman who sat near me: at least I judged her to be middle-aged, though the rather dense black veil that she wore obscured her face to a great extent. Apparently she was a widow, and advertised the fact by the orthodox, old-fashioned “weeds.” But I could see that she had white hair and wore spectacles. She held a folded newspaper on her knee, apparently dividing her attention between the printed matter and the proceedings of the court. She gave me the impression of having come in to spend an idle hour, combining a somewhat perfunctory reading of the paper with a still more perfunctory attention to the rather gruesome entertainment that the inquest afforded.
The next witness called was the doctor who had made the official examination of the body; on whom my bereaved friend bestowed a listless, incurious glance and then returned to her newspaper. He was a youngish man, though his hair was turning gray, with a quiet but firm and confident manner and a very clear, pleasant voice. The preliminaries having been disposed of, the coroner led off with the question:
“You have made an examination of the body of the deceased?”