Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/98

 lived at Friars Moat?—questions which most persons present could have answered as well as the witness. Catechised, Sir Ian told how he and his wife had been in Paris for a fortnight, and how, the day before yesterday, which was the day after their return from the Continent, they had walked together to lunch at Riding Wood House with their friend Mrs. Forestier. They had taken the way through the woods, intending to walk home also.

"Were you accustomed to walking through the woods together?" asked Mr. Samways, the coroner, who, having once been a doctor in Riding St. Mary, still lived there, and in his private capacity as a man and neighbour, knew perfectly well that Sir Ian and Lady Hereward were in the habit of walking through Riding Wood. His mind gave him the answer "Yes," before it came from the witness's lips. "What time did you and Lady Hereward start to return to Friar's Moat?"

"About a quarter past three—or a little before."

"Have you any particular reason for remembering the time of your start?"

Sir Ian hesitated for an instant. "The weather was oppressive, and my wife preferred not to walk fast," he replied.

"Did you wish to arrive at home by a certain hour?"

"Soon after four," said Sir Ian, rather shortly.

"Was there something that Lady Hereward or you