The Lady Sleuths MEGAPACK TM(318)

                “How, sir; what change?”

                “In his treatment of his wife, or in his attitude towards yourself?”

                “I have not seen him in the company of his wife since they went to Haddam. As for his conduct towards myself, I can say no more than I have already. We have never forgotten that we are children of one mother.”

                “Mr. Van Burnam, how many times have you seen Mrs. Howard Van Burnam?”

                “Several. More frequently before they were married than since.”

                “You were in your brother’s confidence, then, at that time; knew he was contemplating marriage?”

                “It was in my endeavors to prevent the match that I saw so much of Miss Louise Stapleton.”

                “Ah! I am glad of the explanation! I was just going to inquire why you, of all members of the family, were the only one to know your brother’s wife by sight.”

                The witness, considering this question answered, made no reply. But the next suggestion could not be passed over.

                “If you saw Mrs. Van Burnam so often, you are acquainted with her personal appearance?”

                “Sufficiently so; as well as I know that of my ordinary calling-acquaintance.”

                “Was she light or dark?”

                “She had brown hair.”

                “Similar to this?”

                The lock held up was the one which had been cut from the head of the dead girl.

                “Yes, somewhat similar to that.” The tone was cold; but he could not hide his distress.

                “Mr. Van Burnam, have you looked well at the woman who was found murdered in your father’s house?”

                “I have, sir.”



                             “Is there anything in her general outline or in such features as have escaped disfigurement to remind you of Mrs. Howard Van Burnam?”

                “I may have thought so—at first glance,” he replied, with decided effort.

                “And did you change your mind at the second?”

                He looked troubled, but answered firmly: “No, I cannot say that I did. But you must not regard my opinion as conclusive,” he hastily added. “My knowledge of the lady was comparatively slight.”

                “The jury will take that into account. All we want to know now is whether you can assert from any knowledge you have or from anything to be noted in the body itself, that it is not Mrs. Howard Van Burnam?”

                “I cannot.”

                And with this solemn assertion his examination closed.

                The remainder of the day was taken up in trying to prove a similarity between Mrs. Van Burnam’s handwriting and that of Mrs. James Pope as seen in the register of the Hotel D—— and on the order sent to Altman’s. But the only conclusion reached was that the latter might be the former disguised, and even on this point the experts differed.


CHAPTER XIII

                HOWARD VAN BURNAM