Page:Anna Katharine Green - Leavenworth Case.djvu/349

Rh have had thousands from her to-day, and find the matter no nearer settled than in the beginning."

"You have had," said he, "but I have not. Fetch her in, Mr. Raymond."

I rose. "One thing," said I, "before I go. What if Hannah had found the sheet of paper, trimmed just as it is, and used it without any thought of the suspicions it would occasion!"

"Ah!" said he, "that is just what we are going to find out."

Mrs. Belden was in a flutter of impatience when I entered the sitting-room. When did I think the coroner would come? and what did I imagine this detective would do for us? It was dreadful waiting there alone for something, she knew not what.

I calmed her as well as I could, telling her the detective had not yet informed me what he could do, having some questions to ask her first. Would she come in to see him? She rose with alacrity. Anything was better than suspense.

Mr. Gryce, who in the short interim of my absence had altered his mood from the severe to the beneficent, received Mrs. Belden with just that show of respectful courtesy likely to impress a woman as dependent as she upon the good opinion of others.

"Ah! and this is the lady in whose house this very disagreeable event has occurred," he exclaimed, partly rising in his enthusiasm to greet her. "May I request you to sit," he asked; "if a stranger may be allowed to take the liberty of inviting a lady to sit in her own house."

"It does not seem like my own house any longer," said she, but in a sad, rather than an aggressive tone; so much had his genial way imposed upon her. "Little