Chapter 17

Fessenden’s words caused a decided stir among his hearers, including the coroner and the two doctors. Mr. Benson was truly anxious to learn what the young man had to say, but at the same time his professional jealousy was aroused by the implication that there was anything to be learned from the paper itself, outside of his own information concerning it. “I was told,” he said quickly, “that this paper is positively written in Miss Van Norman’s own hand.” Robert Fessenden, while not exactly a handsome man, was of a t…