CHAPTER XII.
LATER IN THE DAY.
It happened that Clerk Gum had business on hand the day of the inquest, which obliged him to go to Garchester.

He reached home after dark; and the first thing he saw was his wife, in what he was pleased to call a state of semi-idiocy.

The tea-things were laid on the table, and substantial refreshment in the shape of cold meat, and a plate of muffins ready for toasting, all for the clerk's regalement.

But Mrs.Gum herself sat on a low chair by the fire, her eyes swollen with crying.
"What's the matter now ?" was the clerk's first question.
"Oh, Gum, I told you you ought not to have gone off to-day.

You might have stayed for the inquest." "Much good I should do the inquest, or the inquest do me," retorted the clerk.