“Because of certain facts she has confided in me.”
“What are they?”
He was silent. Evidently he had no intention of being led on in this manner, but, even finding himself cornered, his imperturbable coolness never deserted him, for he calmly replied, with a faint smile,—
“I refuse to answer.”
“Kindly reply to my question, sir, and do not waste the time of the Court,” exclaimed the Coroner, with impatience. “What were these facts?”
Again he was silent, twisting his gloves around his fingers uneasily.
“Come, answer if you please.”
“Well,” he replied, after considerable hesitation, “briefly, she gave me to understand that she loved Deedes, and had refused to listen to the deceased’s declaration of affection.”
“How came she to confide this secret of hers to you?” the Coroner asked eagerly.
Through my memory at that moment there flashed the scene I had witnessed in secret in the garden on that memorable night when I had detected this man with his arm around Ella’s waist, and I looked on in triumph at his embarrassment.