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THE coroner ordered the doors between the two rooms closed in order that the jury might go into executive session in the dining-room. General Alster immediately joined Beatrice, and before the other witnesses entered he was escorting her from the reception room. At a sign from him, I followed with Linda. Linda seemed not in the least affected by her aunt's death and the ordeal of the preliminary investigation that we had just passed through. Her natural coquetry of look, manner, and words was as evident as ever; it appeared in the glance she gave me as I started across the room toward her, in the manner in which she leaned upon my arm as I led her away, and in her first words.
"Do you think it will be necessary for me to wear mourning?" she asked me, carefully lowering her voice so tha
