midday
`` The inquest says drowning or blows on the head administered by a party or parties unknown , '' he answered gravely . `` John Chalmers , the husband , acts like a heeled snake -- violent and sinuous by turns . His lawyer has waived all preliminary proceedings and , as luck will have it , we have a clear docket to go to trial with a jury . '' By afternoon the town was filled with reporters who had come up on the midday train . From the back windows you could see them walking along the banks of the river and talking with a man in a red shirt . And later I learned he was the one who had gone out in a rowboat and found the poor woman 's silly hat , that , with its wet yellow roses and lavender veil , had floated around amongst a clump of rushes . With night the city papers came , full of accounts of the actress and how she had played in melodramas , until finally she had played her farewell in a tragedy of real life .