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'Now, how did you steal those notes? was the one active query of his intelligence as he listened to Barter's candid prattle. It was in the course of these confidences that Philip learned of the existence of that Pigeon Trap of which Mr. Barter was so proud to be an inhabitant. It was at Barter's solicitation that he visited the place, and it was Barter who proposed him as a member.
Barter's frank and engaging countenance, and in that ready smile in which the faultless teeth shone so conspicuously, there was no hint of danger to the most unwary. Even the wariest, listening to his genial mellow laughter, and seeing the jolly shoulders shake with mirth, were inclined to think him a loyal honest-hearted fellow.
The long narrow lane without a turning, the mists and stillness, the driving rain and hot bright afternoons; the scents of wood smoke and hay and the scent of her flowers; the Squire's voice, the dry rattle of grass-cutters, the barking of dogs, and distant hum of threshing; and Sunday sounds church bells and rooks, and Mr. Barter's preaching; the tastes, too, of the very dishes!
To Barter's nerves the glance of dispassionate analysis always seemed to ask Did you steal those notes? and whether his mind and nerves were at accord or no made but little difference to him. His mind rejected the idea of suspicion, but his nerves accepted it with trembling.
'Well, yes, said Steinberg tangibly. 'Pretty fair. His very admission of this fact made Barter's case seem hopeless to himself. If he had brow-beaten, or blustered, if he had shown anger or impatience, or had been querulous, there might have seemed to exist some slenderest chance for him. But Steinberg was so unmoved that he seemed immovable.
'I , began Bommaney, stammering and speaking a little thickly, 'I didn't come to ask about your father. Young Barter's heart at this, though he was perfectly prepared for it, began to beat like a sledgehammer. 'I've had a dreadful loss. I have called nowhere but at your office since I left my own, and I have lost eight thousand pounds. I am convinced that I must have left it there.
He had learned more and more to believe his father's story, though he had perhaps too carefully guarded himself from his own eager desire to accept it Barter's every action with the cards offered confirmation of the belief that he had taken possession of the lost notes.
'Good-night, and many thanks for taking my clumsiness in such good part. Barter's ready smile beamed out again. They shook hands before parting like old acquaintances, and Philip walked on, through the incessant noise of Holborn into quieter Bloomsbury Street, along the eastern side of Bedford Square, where the bare trees were shivering in a bath of fog, and into Gower Street.
That's barter, and barter's commerce, old boy! it's all my father's fault; he will make a tradesman of me. Dutiful behavior, isn't it, to be doing a bit of commerce already on my own account?" "I'll tell you what, Zack," said Mr. Blyth, "I don't like the way you're going on in at all. Your last letter made me very uneasy, I can promise you." "You can't be half as uneasy as I am," rejoined Zack.
Reilly was three miles distant from Barter's brigade, which covered the right of the continuous line of the army intrenchments, and it was certainly risking something to extend the brigades of a single division so far, but it would have been a great disappointment to us to have been called back. The weather had begun to favor us.
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