to rush in among them, and to hunt 'em up, for
they were all hanging together like little bits o'
sticks in a pond.

Then the names were called over, and the
swearing done after they'd let the coroner choose
their foreman, for they couldn't do it themselves:
and then the doctor pulls out a snuff-box,
and the coroner takes a pinch, which, as I
thought, he did like a man as wasn't used to
it, and then sneezes three times werry loudly,
and then tells the doctor as it always clears
his head wonderfully; when the doctor smiles
and takes a werry large pinch, making a great
deal o' snuffling and fuss over it, and then
snapping his fingers and flicking the dust off his
shirt-frill, and all without sneezing.

"Now, gentlemen," says the coroner, and
all the jurymen as was now sitting on each side
o' the table leans their heads towards him, " you
are met here to inquire as touching the death
o' a woman whose body was found — er — yesterday
— er— er — yesterday, I think you said, sir?
Oh! ah! Yes; I see; yesterday, in the
Serpentine. You will now proceed, gentlemen, to
view the body."

The jury then rose, and the coroner began
talking to the doctor, who was werry busy
taking himself up and putting his wrists in
handcuffs with his gold chain.

"This way, gentlemen," says the beadle; and
he led the way down a werry clean stone passage
and into a small paved yard, in one corner
o' which was a little slate-roofed shed with the
door open, and in here all the jurymen went
except two, and they was a young pale chap,
almost a boy, and t'other a tall six-foot-two
fellow, with a face like a cocoa-nut— all brown
whiskers.

The place was wet and damp as if the floor
had just been washed; and there was a queer
doctor's shop sorter smell about; and there, so
pale and still upon a board laid on two trestles,
was her as we had come to see. Solemn and
stern as marble, with her black hair smoothly
parted, and her form decently covered and
arranged; without a mark, or even a frown upon
her handsome face, no sign of violence or pain,
seen here under the dim skylight of the dead-
house— asleep.

It was a sad, sad sight; and we looked on in
silence. There was no look of horror or fear
amongst them as came to look; but they went
in and out on tiptoe. They talked in whispers,
as if afraid to wake her — poor thing; and then
seemed glad to be once more outside, and to get
back to the board-room.

Then Private Brooks was examined, and said
what he knew, which wasn't much; and a
deal o' trouble they had with him to get it: for
there was him, a chap as was always being
drilled, and could form squares, and fours, and
counter-march, and all sorts, had to be shoved,
and butted, and pushed, and poked, to get him
to stand in the right place; which he did, at
last, like when the sergeant calls out " Attention!"
And there he stood, ready to let himself
off— as he had no rifle — and discharge all the
information as was rammed into that not werry
dangerous shell— his skull.

And then I was called, and said what I knew,
and how in the morning I told the first policeman
I met. And then he who had been standing
outside was called, and stated as he had
heard certain information from the last witness,
and went at once to the water-side, where, as
soon as it was broad daylight, he saw something
floating, and after getting a boat, he brought
the body o' deceased to shore and had it
removed to the dead-house. There was nothing
on the body by which it could be identified —
no money or papers, but the clothes was there,
if any gentleman would like to examine them.

But no one did anything else but shudder at
the damp muddy things as he dragged forward;
and then the coroner called for the next
witness.

Poor lass! she said her name was Rosina
Ellis, single woman, and she could hardly
give her evidence for sobbing. She didn't look
twenty. Said she knew the poor woman well,
for they lodged in the same house; and, as she
had not been back, thought it might be her as
was found in the Serpentine, for she used to say
she'd drown herself. She had known her
two years, and they often walked together.
Felt sick o' life herself, and shouldn't mind
being with Agnes. Thought her other name
was Wilson, for that was written in a Bible she'
gave witness. It was a little old Bible with
marks in it, and there was a leaf turned down
where it said, " Woman, where are those thine
accusers?" and a thick mark under the words;
and another where it said, " Go, and sin no
more." Agnes told her to read it, and seemed
werry unhappy, and said she was tired of life.

And then there was nobody spoke for a bit;
and the poor gal kep' on sobbing so bitterly,
and one or two o' the jury looked werry hard
at the blotting-paper before them. Then the
doctor told his story, full of long words, about
post-mortem examination, and unhealthy state
of organs, and effusion on brain; and at last
gave it out as the poor gal died by drowning
herself, he should say.

That was all: so the coroner said, as the jury
had heard the depositions of the several
witnesses, and if they was agreed, they would no
doubt find a verdict in accordance with the
evidence, as the poor creature had been found
dead. The sad case before them showed the
terrible depravity of our great city; and how Hyde
Park had become the resort of the homeless and
disreputable; and then he said a whole lot more,
as if he meant it for me, and made me feel as if
it was all my fault as the poor gal was drowned.

So the verdict of "Found dead" was given
in, and the jury all went and signed the papers;
the coroner shook hands with the doctor; and
then the room was slowly emptied, for jury and
witnesses straggled out, and the inquest was at
an end.

I stood outside, feeling low and miserable,
when I heard some one behind me speaking;
and he said, in a low sad way: