think.”

The inquest took place in due course the following day. The proceedings were[95] brief and formal. The body had been identified in the meantime as that of Miss Evangeline Stableford, a well-known provincial actress; and after evidence of identity and of the finding of the body, the medical evidence which followed left no room for any doubt as to the cause of death. The verdict of the jury was unanimous and immediate: “Suicide by poisoning with prussic acid during temporary insanity,” in spite of the remarks in the summing up of the coroner, that they had no evidence before them of the state of mind of the deceased. But then a coroner’s jury so often takes the bit in their teeth. The girl was too beautiful to be buried with a stake driven through her body, which many people still believe is even yet the legal consequence of a bare verdict of suicide.

[95]

The public and the jury drifted out of the room; and the coroner, as he left, noticing the barrister, said:

[96]“Were you briefed here to-day, Mr. Tempest?”

[96]

“No—just curiosity; like the ’busman who takes his holiday by riding on another man’s ’bus.”

“Well, from what one hears, I should have thought you were too busy to bother about us.”

The barrister laughed. “The courts aren’t sitting.”

“Of course not. I’d forgotten. Inquests, you know, aren’t postponed over vacations. Good morning.”

Tempest joined Yardley and Parkyns on the pavement outside.

“Well, Mr. Tempest, what do you think of it all?” said the inspector.

“Parkyns, you’ve known me a good many years now. It must be nearly twenty years since I first cross-examined you at the Old Bailey.”

“Yes, it must be quite that long.”

[97]“And we’ve been interested together or against each other in the same cases a good many times since then, haven’t we?”

[97]

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