"I should be much obliged, my dear, if you would tell me a few details as
to my poor brother's death. Your letter contained no particulars at all,"
and as the other made no immediate answer, Miss Crofton went on:--"I know
there was an inquest, for one of my friends in Florence saw a report of
it in an English paper. Perhaps you would kindly let me see any newspaper
account or cuttings you may have preserved?"
"I have kept _nothing_, Alice!" Enid Crofton uttered the words with a
touch of almost angry excitement. Then, perhaps seeing that the other was
very much surprised, she said more quietly:--"The inquest was a purely
formal affair--the Coroner himself told me that there must always be an
inquest when a person died suddenly."
"Oh, but surely the question was raised, and that very seriously, as
to whether Cecil took what he did take on purpose, or by accident? I
understood from my friend that the account of the inquest she saw in some
popular Sunday paper was headed 'An Essex Mystery.'"
Enid felt as if all the blood in her body was flowing towards her face.
She congratulated herself that she was sitting with her back to the
light. These remarks, these questions made her feel sick and faint.
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