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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
good many of them, and this was much larger, and yellower,
too; better gold, I conclude.”
The coroner was accustomed to garrulous, sight – seeing
females, and knew how to humour them.
“Where did Mrs. Goodwin keep her specie?” he enquired.
“If you saw her put the stocking away, you must know its usual
place of deposit.”
“In her chest of drawers,” answered the woman eagerly.
“That very chest of drawers which was got out of the house, as
sound as the day it went into it, and has been brought down
into the village for safe keeping.”
All this was so, and measures were taken to push the in-
vestigation further, and in that direction. Three or four young
men, willing volunteers in such a cause, brought the burean
into the court – room, and the coroner directed that each of
the drawers should be publicly opened, in the presence of the
jurors. The widow was first sworn, however, and testified regularly to the matter of the stocking, the money, and the place of
usual deposit.
“Ah! you’ll not find it there,” observed Mrs. Pope, as the
village cabinet – maker applied a key, the wards of which happened to fit those of the locks in question. “She kept her money
in the lowest draw of all. I’ve seen her take the stocking out,
first and last, at least a dozen times.”
The lower draw was opened, accordingly. It contained fe-
male apparel, and a goodly store of such articles as were suited
to the wants of a respectable woman in the fourth or fifth of
the gradations into which all society so naturally, and unavoidably, divides itself. But there was no stocking full of darns, no
41
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
silver, no gold. Mrs. Pope’s busy and nimble fingers were thrust
hastily into an inner corner of the drawer, and a silk dress was
unceremoniously opened, that having been the precise receptacle of the treasure as she had seen it last bestowed.
“It’s gone!” exclaimed the woman. “Somebody must have
taken it!”
A great deal was now thought to be established. The bro-
ken skulls, and the missing money, went near to establish a
case of murder and robbery, in addition to the high crime of
arson. Men, who had worn solemn and grave countenances all
that morning, now looked excited and earnest. The desire for a
requiting justice was general and active, and the dead became
doubly dear, by means of their wrongs.
All this time Dr. McBrain had been attending, exclusively,
to the part of the subject that most referred to his own profession. Of the fractures in the two skulls, he was well assured,
though the appearance of the remains was such as almost to
baffle investigation. Of another important fact he was less certain. While all he heard prepared him to meet with the skeletons of a man and his wife, so far as he could judge, in the
imperfect state in which they were laid before him, the bones
were those of two females.
“Did you know this Mr. Goodwin, Mr. Coroner?” enquired
the physician, breaking into the more regular examination with
very little ceremony; “or was he well known to any here?”
The coroner had no very accurate knowledge of the de-
ceased, though every one of the jurors had been well acquainted with him. Several had known him all their lives.
“Was he a man of ordinary size?” asked the doctor.
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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
“Very small. Not taller than his wife, who might be set
down as quite a tall old lady.”
It often happens in Europe, especially in England, that the
man and his wife are so nearly of a height as to leave very little
sensible difference in their statures; but it is a rare occurrence
in this country. In America, the female is usually delicate, and
of a comparatively small frame, while the average height of
man is something beyond that of the European standard. It
was a little out of the common way, therefore, to meet with a
couple so nearly of a size, as these remains would make Goodwin and his wife to have been.
“These skeletons are very nearly of the same length,” re-
sumed the doctor, after measuring them for the fifth time. “The
man could not have been much, if any, taller than his wife.”
“He was not,” answered a juror. “Old Peter Goodwin could
not have been more than five feet five, and Dorothy was all
of that, I should think. When they came to meeting together,
they looked much of a muchness.”
Now, there is nothing on which a prudent and regular
physician is more cautious than in committing himself on
unknown and uncertain ground. He has his theories, and his
standard of opinions, usually well settled in his mind, and he
is ever on the alert to protect and bolster them; seldom making any admission that may contravene either. He is apt to denounce the water cure, however surprising may have been its
effects; and there is commonly but one of the “opathies” to
which he is in the least disposed to defer, and that is the particular “opathy” on which he has moulded his practice. As for
Dr. McBrain, he belonged strictly to the alapathic school, and
43
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
might be termed almost an ultra in his adherence to its laws,
while the number of the new schools that were springing up
around him, taught him caution, as well as great prudence, in
the expression of his opinions. Give him a patient, and he went
to work boldly, and with the decision and nerve of a physician
accustomed to practise in an exaggerated climate; but place
him before the public, as a theoretical man, and he was timid
and wary. His friend Dunscomb had observed this peculiarity,
thirty years before the commencement of our tale, and had
quite recently told him, “You are bold in the only thing in
which I am timid, Ned, and that is in making up to the women.
If Mrs. Updyke were a newfangled theory, now, instead of an
old – fashioned widow, as she is, hang me if I think you would
have ever had the spirit to propose.” This peculiarity of temperament, and, perhaps, we might add of character, rendered
Dr. McBrain, now, very averse to saying, in the face of so much
probability, and the statements of so many witnesses, that the
mutilated and charred skeletons that lay on the court – house
table were those of two females, and not those of a man and
his wife. It was certainly possible he might be mistaken; for
the conflagration had made sad work of these poor emblems
of mortality; but science has a clear eye, and the doctor was a
skilful and practised anatomist. In his own mind, there were
very few doubts on the subject.
As soon as the thoughtful physician found time to turn
his attention on the countenances of those who composed
the crowd in the court – room, he observed that nearly all
eyes were bent on the person of one particular female, who sat
apart, and was seemingly labouring under a shock of some sort
44
THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
or other, that materially affected her nerves. McBrain saw, at a
glance, that this person belonged to a class every way superior
to that of even the highest of those who pressed around the
table. The face was concealed in a handkerchief, but the form
was not only youthful but highly attractive. Small, delicate
hands and feet could be seen; such hands and feet as we are all
accustomed to see in an American girl, who has been delicately
brought up. Her dress was simple, and of studied modesty; but
there was an air about that, which a little surprised the kind –
hearted individual, who was now so closely observing her.
The doctor had little difficulty in learning from those near
him that this “young woman,” so all in the crowd styled her,
though it was their practice to term most girls, however humble their condition, “ladies,” had been residing with the Goodwins for a few weeks, in the character of a boarder, as some
asserted, while others affirmed it was as a friend. At all events,
there was a mystery about her; and most of the girls of Biberry
had called her proud, because she did not join in their frivolities, flirtations and visits. It was true, no one had ever thought
of discharging the duties of social life by calling on her, or in
making the advances usual to well – bred people; but this
makes little difference where there is a secret consciousness of
inferiority, and of an inferiority that is felt, while it is denied.
Such things are of every – day occurrence, in country – life
in particular, while American town – life is far from being exempt from the weakness. In older countries, the laws of society
are better respected.
It was now plain that the blight of suspicion had fallen on
this unknown, and seemingly friendless girl. If the fire had
45
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
been communicated intentionally, who so likely to be guilty
as she? if the money was gone, who had so many means of securing it as herself? These were questions that passed from
one to another, until distrust gathered so much head, that the
coroner deemed it expedient to adjourn the inquest, while the
proof might be collected, and offered in proper form.
Dr. McBrain was, by nature, kind – hearted; then he could
not easily get over that stubborn scientific fact, of both the
skeletons having belonged to females. It is true that, admitting this to be the case, it threw very little light on the matter,
and in no degree lessened any grounds of suspicion that might
properly rest on the “young woman”; but it separated him from
the throng, and placed his mind in a sort of middle condition,
in which he fancied it might be prudent, as well as charitable,
to doubt. Perceiving that the crowd was dispersing, though not
without much animated discussion in under tones, and that
the subject of all this conversation still remained in her solitary corner, apparently unconscious of what was going on, the
worthy doctor approached the immovable figure, and spoke.
“You have come here as a witness, I presume,” he said, in
a gentle tone; “if so, your attendance just now will no longer
be necessary, the coroner having adjourned the inquest until
tomorrow afternoon.”
At the first sound of his voice, the solitary female removed
a fine cambric handkerchief from her face, and permitted her
new companion to look upon it. We shall say nothing, here,
touching that countenance or any other personal peculiarity,
as a sufficiently minute description will be given in the next
chapter, through the communications made by Dr. McBrain to
46
THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
Dunscomb. Thanking her informant for his information, and
exchanging a few brief sentences on the melancholy business
which had brought both there, the young woman arose, made
a slight but very graceful inclination of her body, and withdrew.
Dr. McBrain’s purpose was made up on the spot. He saw
very plainly that a fierce current of suspicion was setting
against this pleasing, and, as it seemed to him, friendless young
creature; and he determined at once to hasten back to town,
and get his friend to go out to Biberry, without a moment’s
delay, that he might appear there that very afternoon in the
character of counsel to the helpless.
47
CHAPTER III
“I am informed thoroughly of the cause.
Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?”
Merchant of Venice.
Such was the substance of the communication that Doctor
McBrain now made to his friend, Tom Dunscomb. The latter
had listened with an interest he did not care to betray, and
when the other was done he gaily cried
“I ‘ll tell the widow Updyke of you, Ned!”
“She knows the whole story already, and is very anxious
lest you should have left town, to go to the Rockland circuit,
where she has been told you have an important case to try.”
“The cause goes over on account of the opposite counsel’s
being in the court of appeals. Ah’s me! I have no pleasure in
managing a cause since this Code of Procedure has innovated
on all our comfortable and venerable modes of doing business.
I believe I shall close up my affairs, and retire, as soon as I can
bring all my old cases to a termination.”
“If you can bring those old cases to a termination, you will
be the first lawyer who ever did.”
“Yes, it is true, Ned,” answered Dunscomb, coolly taking a
pinch of snuff, “you doctors have the advantage of us, in this
behalf; your cases certainly do not last for ever.”
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THE WAYS OF THE HOUR
“Enough of this, Tom you will go to Biberry, I take it for
granted?”
“You have forgotten the fee. Under the new code, compen-
sation is a matter of previous agreement.”
“You shall have a pleasant excursion, over good roads, in
the month of May, in an easy carriage, and drawn by a pair of
as spirited horses as ever trotted on the Third Avenue.”
“The animals you have just purchased in honour of Mrs.
Updyke that is Mrs. McBrain that is to be” touching
the bell, and adding to the very respectable black who im-
mediately answered the summons, “Tell Master Jack and Miss
Sarah I wish to see them. So, Ned, you have let the widow know
all about it, and she does not pout or look distrustful that is a
good symptom, at least.”
“I would not marry a jealous woman, if I never had a
wife!”
“Then you will never marry at all. Why, Dr. McBrain, it is
in the nature of woman to be distrustful to be jealous to fancy
things that are merely figments of the brain.”
“You know nothing about them, and would be wisest to
be silent but here are the young people already, to ask your
pleasure.”
“Sarah, my dear,” resumed the uncle in a kind and affec-
tionate tone of voice, one that the old bachelor almost universally held towards that particular relative, “I must give you a
little trouble. Go into my room, child, and put up, in my smallest travelling bag, a clean shirt, a handkerchief or two, three
or four collars, and a change all round, for a short expedition
into the country.”
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“Country! Do you quit us to – day, sir?”
“Within an hour, at latest,” looking at his watch. “If we
leave the door at ten, we can reach Biberry before the inquest
reassembles. You told those capital beasts of yours, Ned, to
come here?”
“I told Stephen to give them a hint to that effect. You may
rely on their punctuality.”
“Jack, you had better be of our party. I go on some legal
business of importance, and it may be well for you to go along,
in order to pick up an idea, or two.”
“And why not Michael also, sir? He has as much need of
ideas as I have myself.”
A pretty general laugh succeeded, though Sarah, who was
just quitting the room, did not join in it. She rather looked
grave, as well as a little anxiously towards the last – named
neophyte of the law.
“Shall we want any books, sir?” demanded the nephew.
“Why, yes we will take the Code of Procedure. One can no
more move without that, just now, than he can travel in some
countries without a passport. Yes, put up the code, Jack, and
we’ll pick it to pieces as we trot along.”
“There is little need of that, sir, if what they say be true. I
hear, from all quarters, that it is doing that for itself, on a gallop.”
“Shame on thee, lad I have half a mind to banish thee to
Philadelphia! But put up the code; thy joke can’t be worse than
that joke. As for Michael, he can accompany us if he wish it;
but you must both be ready by ten. At ten, precisely, we quit
my door, in the chariot of Phoebus, eh, Ned?”
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