Mr. Jeffrey did not answer; he was having his first struggle with
the new and terrible prospect awaiting him at the approaching inquest.
BOOK II
THE LAW AND ITS VICTIM
XI
DETAILS
The days of my obscurity were over. Henceforth, I was regarded as
a decided factor in this case - a case which from this time on,
assumed another aspect both at headquarters and in the minds of
people at large. The reporters, whom we had hitherto managed to
hold in check, now overflowed both the coroner's office and police
headquarters, and articles appeared in all the daily papers with
just enough suggestion in them to fire the public mind and make me,
for one, anticipate an immediate word from Mr. Jeffrey calculated
to establish the alibi he had failed to make out on the day we
talked with him. But no such word came. His memory still played
him false, and no alternative was left but to pursue the official
inquiry in the line suggested by the interview just recounted.
No proceeding in which I had ever been engaged interested me as did
this inquest. In the first place, the spectators were of a very
different character from the ordinary. As I wormed myself along to
the seat accorded to such witnesses as myself, I brushed by men of
the very highest station and a few of the lowest; and bent my head
more than once in response to the inquiring gaze of some fashionable
lady who never before, I warrant, had found herself in such a scene.
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