LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter V.

       A Case for the Coroner

       Table of Contents

      It was characteristic of Miss Morton that she went straight to her own room and shut the door. Mrs. Markham, on the other hand, went to the room occupied by Kitty French. Molly Gardner was there, too, and the two girls, robed in kimonas, were sitting, white-faced and tearful-eyed, waiting for some further news from the room whence they had been banished.

      Mrs. Markham told them what Doctor Leonard had said, but Kitty French broke out impetuously, "Madeleine never killed herself, never! I know she always said that about the dagger, but she never really meant it, and any way she never would have done it the night before her wedding. I tell you she didn't do it! It was some horrid burglar who came in to steal her presents, who killed her."

      "I would almost rather it had been so, Kitty dear," said Mrs. Markham, gently stroking the brow of the excited girl; "but it could not have been, for we have very strong locks and bolts against burglars, and Harris is very careful in his precautions for our safety."

      "I don't care! Maddy never killed herself. She wouldn't do it, I know her too well. Oh, dear! now there won't be any wedding at all! Isn't it dreadful to think of that decorated room, and the bower we planned for the bride!"

      At these thoughts Kitty's tears began to flow afresh, and Molly, who was already limp from weeping, joined her.

      "There, there," said Mrs. Markham, gently patting Molly's shoulder. "Don't cry so, dearie. It can't do any good, and you'll just make yourself ill."

      "But I don't understand," said Molly, as she mopped her eyes with her wet ball of a handkerchief; "why did she kill herself?"

      "I don't know," said Mrs. Markham, but her expression seemed to betoken a sad suspicion.

      "She didn't kill herself," reiterated Kitty. "I stick to that, but if she did, I know why."

      This feminine absence of logic was unremarked by her hearers, who both said, "Why?"

      "Because Schuyler didn't love her enough," said Kitty earnestly. "She just worshipped him, and he used to care more for her, but lately he hasn't."

      "How do you know?" asked Molly.

      "Oh, Madeleine didn't tell me," returned Kitty. "I just gathered it. I've been here 'most a week— you know I came several days before you did, Molly—and I've noticed her a lot. Oh, I don't mean I spied on her, or anything horrid. Only, I couldn't help seeing that she wished Mr. Carleton would be more attentive."

      "Why, I thought he was awfully attentive," said Molly.

      "Oh, attentive, yes. I don't exactly mean that. But there was something lacking,—don't you think so, Mrs. Markham?"

      "Yes, Kitty, I do think so. In fact, I know that Mr. Carleton didn't give Madeleine the heart-whole affection that she gave him. But I hoped it would all turn out right, and I surely never dreamed it was such a serious matter as to bring Madeleine to this. But she was a reserved, proud nature, and if she thought Mr. Carleton had ceased to love her, I know she would far rather die than marry him."

      "But she could have refused to marry him," cried Molly. "She didn't have to kill herself to get rid of him."

      "She didn't kill herself," stubbornly repeated Kitty, but Mrs. Markham said:

      "You don't understand Maddy's nature, Molly; she must have had some sudden and positive proof of Mr. Carleton's lack of true affection for her to drive her to this step. But once convinced that he did not care for her, I know her absolute despair would impel her to the desperate deed."

      "Why didn't he love her?" said Molly, who could see no reason why any man shouldn't love the magnificent Madeleine.

      "I think," said Kitty slowly, "there was somebody else."

      "How did you know that?" exclaimed Mrs. Markham sharply, as if she had detected Kitty in some wrongdoing.

      "I don't know it, but I can't help thinking so. Madeleine has sometimes asked me if I didn't think most men preferred gentle, timid dispositions to a strong, capable nature like her own. Of course she didn't express it just like that, but she hinted at it so wistfully, that I told her no, she was the splendidest, most adorable woman in the whole world. I meant it, too, but at the same time I do think men 'most always love the soft, tractable kind of girls, that are not so imperious and awe-inspiring as Maddy was."

      Surely Kitty ought to know, for she was the most delicious type of soft, tractable femininity.

      Her round, dimpled face was positively peachy, and her curling tendrils of goldy hair clustered round a low white brow, above appealing violet eyes. A man might admire the haughty Madeleine, but he would caressingly love bewitching little Kitty, and would involuntarily feel a sense of protection toward her, because of the shy trustfulness in her glance.

      This was not entirely ingenuous, for wise little Kitty quite understood her own charm, but it was natural, and in no way forced; and she was quite content that her lines had fallen in her own pleasant places, and she left the magnificent Madeleines of the world to pursue their own roles. But she had admired and loved Maddy Van Norman, and just because of their differing natures, had understood why Schuyler Carleton's affection was tempered with a certain sense of inferiority.

      "You know," she went on, as if thinking aloud, "everybody was a little afraid of magnificent Maddy. She was so superb, so regal. You couldn't imagine yourself cuddling her!"

      "I should say not!" exclaimed Molly. "I could only imagine salaaming to her, or deferentially kissing her hand."

      "Yes, that's what I mean. Well, Mr. Carleton got tired of that stilted kind of an attitude,—or, at least, she thought he did. I don't know, I'm sure, but she was possessed with a notion that he cared for some other girl,—some one of the clinging rosebud sort."

      "Do you know this?" asked Mrs. Markham; "I mean, do you know that Maddy thought this?"

      "Yes, I know it," asserted Kitty, with a wag of her wise little head. "I tried to persuade her that no clinging rosebud could rival a tall, proud lily, but she thoroughly believed there was some one else."

      "But Mr. Carleton was to marry her," said Mrs. Markham. "I can't believe he would do that if he loved another."

      "That's what bothered Maddy," said Kitty; "she knew how honorable Mr. Carleton had always been, and she said that as he was engaged to her, he would think it his duty to marry her, even though his heart belonged to some one else."

      "Oh, pshaw!" said Molly. "If he was going to marry her, and didn't love her, it was because of her fortune. Probably his rosebud girl hasn't a cent."

      "Don't talk like that," said Kitty, shuddering. "Somehow it seems disloyal to both of them."

      "But it is all true," said Mrs. Markham sadly. "Madeleine has never been of a confidential nature, but I know that she had the idea Kitty tells of, and I fear it was true. And I may be disloyal, or even unjust, but I can't help thinking Schuyler was attracted by Maddy's money. He is proud and ambitious, and he would be quite in his element as the head of a fine establishment, with plenty of money to spend on it."

      "Well, he'll never have it now," said Molly, and as this brought back the realization of the awful event that had happened, both girls burst into crying again.

      Mrs. Markham, herself with overwrought nerves, found she could do nothing to comfort the girls, so left them and went to commune with her grief in her own room.

      Meantime the two doctors alone in the library were still in discussion.

      "Well, what do you want?" inquired Doctor Leonard angrily. "Do you want to imply, and with no evidence whatever,

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