CHAPTER 7"Can you call to mind any friend or acquaintance of Dr. Bastow's who wears a dark beard?"
"Don't know any of his friends or acquaintances at all, except Sir Felix Skrine. He entertained at his club—the Corinthian—or if he had anyone in for a pipe and a chat he had them in his own room. As for beards, nobody wears them. Men were a great deal better-looking in my opinion when they used to in my young days. Not but what they were inconvenient sometimes!" Miss Lavinia added candidly.
Whereat in spite of the gravity of the occasion a faint titter ran through the room.
The adjourned inquest had been opened this morning and, as Inspector Stoddart had prophesied, Miss Lavinia was one of the first witnesses called. After her account of the finding of the body of her brother-in-law given
