United States or Brazil ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
After all, is it too much to have suggested that he was a human anomaly on the roll of attorneys? Mrs. Gallilee made her appearance in the library and Mr. Mool's pulse accelerated its beat. Mrs. Gallilee's son followed her into the room and Mr. Mool's pulse steadied itself again. By special arrangement with the lawyer, Ovid had been always kept in ignorance of his mother's affairs.
Mool waited at the lodgings, and sent a note to Baccani. In ten minutes more he found himself in the presence of an elderly man, of ascetic appearance; whose looks and tones showed him to be apt to take offence on small provocation, and more than half ready to suspect an eminent solicitor of being a spy. But Mr. Mool's experience was equal to the call on it.
Mool returning from a legal consultation to an appointment at his office found a gentleman, whom he knew by sight, walking up and down before his door; apparently bent on intercepting him. "Mr. Null, I believe?" he said, with his customary politeness. Mr. Null answered to his name, and asked for a moment of Mr. Mool's time. Mr. Mool looked grave, and said he was late for an appointment already.
The first quarterly payment of Carmina's allowance of five hundred a year had been already made, by Mool's advice. Enough was left even without the assistance which the nurse's resources would render to purchase the necessary outfit, and to take the two women to Quebec. Meanwhile, Fortune befriended Mrs. Gallilee's maid. No questions were put to her; no notice even was taken of the late return.
I said to myself, when I came here, 'I want Mool's advice. Be a dear good fellow set my mind at ease. Oh, my friend, my old friend, what can I do for my children?" Amazed and distressed utterly at a loss how to interfere to any good purpose Mr. Mool recovered his presence of mind, the moment Mr. Gallilee appealed to him in his legal capacity.
He left instructions with one of his clerks to make inquiries, the next morning, at the shops of foreign booksellers. There, and there only, the question might be answered, whether Baccani was still living, and living in London. The inquiries proved successful. On Tuesday afternoon, Baccani's address was in Mr. Mool's hands.
"The parties have been waiting, sir, for more than a quarter of an hour." Mr. Mool's attention wandered: he was thinking of Mrs. Gallilee. "Is she dying?" he asked. "She is out of her mind," Mr. Null answered. Those words petrified the lawyer: he looked helplessly at the clerk who, in his turn, looked indignantly at the office clock. Mr. Mool recovered himself.
Mr. "I am going to surprise you," Mrs. Gallilee announced. "No to shock you. No even that is not strong enough. Let me say, to horrify you." Mr. Mool's anxieties returned, complicated by confusion. The behaviour of Mrs. Gallilee exhibited the most unaccountable contrast to her language. She showed no sign of those strong emotions to which she had alluded.
"No; we have said enough already." Mr. Mool's audacity arrived at its climax. He put his hand on the lock of the office door, and held it shut. "The young lady, Mrs. Gallilee! I am sure you will never breathe a word of this to the pretty gentle, young lady? Even if it was true; and, as God is my witness, I am sure it's false " "Good-evening, Mr. Mool!"
The doctor's holiday amiability had reached its full development indeed, when he allowed a strange lawyer to sit and talk with him! "Gentlemen of your profession," he muttered, "never pay visits to people whom they don't know, without having their own interests in view. Mr. Mool, you want something of me. What is it?" Mr. Mool's professional tact warned him to waste no time on prefatory phrases.
Word Of The Day