gentleman's bedroom. I gazed with interest at the face of Robert Pembroke, and, save for what Doctor Masterson had told me, I should have thought I was looking at the face of a sleeping man. My first feeling was one of admiration, for the features were[Pg 22] of classic mould, and the white hair, thick and rather long, waved back from a noble brow. [Pg 22] "What a handsome man!" I exclaimed involuntarily. "Did you know him?" asked Doctor Masterson, looking at me keenly. "No," I replied; "I've never seen him before. I've lived in this house but two weeks." "Robert Pembroke was a handsome man," agreed the doctor, "but, with the best intentions, and with all the respect due the dead, there is little else good to be said of him. But his sudden death puzzles me greatly. I have been his physician for many years, and I should have said that he had not the least apoplectic tendency. Yet apoplexy must have caused his death—at least, so far as I can judge without a more thorough examination." As he spoke Doctor Masterson was examining the body, and his look of bewilderment increased. "He looks as if he were asleep," I said. "That's just it," said the doctor. "There is no indication of a convulsive struggle or a spasm of any kind. His limbs are quietly composed, even relaxed, as if he had died in his sleep; which is not quite indicative of a stroke of apoplexy." "Heart disease?" I suggested. [Pg 23] [Pg 23] "He had no valvular trouble of the heart," said the doctor, who was continuing his examination. "He had gout, indigestion, rheumatism, and many ailments incidental to old age, but nothing organic, and I had supposed he would live many years longer to torment that poor girl in there." "He was irascible, I know," I responded, feeling that I ought to say something. "Irascible faintly expresses it," declared the Doctor, in a low voice; "he was cruel, domineering, tyrannical and of a brutal temper." "And he vented it on innocent Miss Pembroke?"
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