As I didn't
know what to say to a man like him, and he didn't know what to
say to me, the time seemed long, but it couldn't have been very
many minutes before Mr. Jeffrey came back with a slip of paper
in his hand and a very much relieved look on his face. 'The deed
was premeditated,' he cried. 'My unfortunate wife has misunderstood
my affection for her.' And from being a very much broken-down man,
he stood up straight and tall and prepared himself very quietly to
go to the Moore house. That is all I can tell about the way the
news was received by him."
Were these details necessary? Many appeared to regard them as
futile and uncalled for. But Coroner Z. was never known to waste
time on trivialities, and if he called for these facts, those who
knew him best felt certain that they were meant as a preparation for
Mr. Jeffrey's testimony, which was now called for.
XII
THRUST AND PARRY
When Francis Jeffrey's hand fell from his forehead and he turned to
face the assembled people, an instinctive compassion arose in every
breast at sight of his face, which, if not open in its expression,
was at least surcharged with the deepest misery. In a flash the
scene took on new meaning. Many remembered that less than a month
before his eye had been joyous and his figure a conspicuous one
among the favored sons of fortune.
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