At this she looked extremely white and her lip quivered slightly, but with a sudden accession of extreme dignity she drew herself up proudly and answered:
"I saw no occasion to do so, and I deemed the proper thing was to send at once for our family physician."
Still the coroner eyed her in a peculiar way, I thought, as, without cessation, he continued to question her.
"When did you last see your uncle alive?"
"When he left the drawing-room last evening, to retire to his bedroom."
"Quite so. His gout was troublesome, but he had no other ailment that I know of."
"Was your uncle in a bad temper when he left you?"
"He had been looking over the household accounts, and he accused me of extravagance."
"Invariably, upon looking over the bills."
"Always," and Miss Pembroke's face showed an expression of resignation, that made it pathetic to look upon. What that poor little girl must have suffered from that parsimonious old man!
"Did your Uncle show anger with you for any other cause?"
Miss Pembroke hesitated. And then, though with a rising color in her pale face, she replied, "He did."
"I'm sorry, Miss Pembroke, to be unpleasantly inquisitive, but it is imperative that I should know the facts of the case. What was the reason of your uncle's anger, aside from the question of your household bills?"
"He was angry with me because I refused to become engaged to Mr. Leroy."
"Mr. Leroy has asked you to become his wife?"
The cold, even tones of the two speakers, and the quiet expressionless faces seemed to rob this strange conversation of all hint of personality. For myself, I felt a glad thrill that Janet Pembroke could speak thus dispassionately of the man with whom I had feared she was in love. And, yet, in love with him she might be, for as a lawyer, I knew much of the vagaries and contradictions of woman's perversity; and I realized that the mere fact of Miss Pembroke's excessive calm might mean only a hiding of excessive emotion.
"Did your uncle promise you a large sum of money if you would marry Mr. Leroy?"
Miss Pembroke flashed a reproachful glance at Charlotte, who had of course brought about this question, but she answered, in a steady voice: "It was not of the nature of a bargain, as your words seem to imply."