United States or Qatar ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"If only I knew," she cried. "Oh, if only I knew!" Archie Parminter had paid one visit to the house, had stayed for one night; and he and Garratt Skinner and Walter Hine had sat up till morning, talking together in the library.
In spite of Parminter's care his pen spluttered. Sylvia saw Archie look at Barstow, and she heard Barstow answer "No, that won't do." Archie Parminter dropped Hine's hand, tore a slip of paper out of the book, crumpled it, and threw it down with a gesture of anger on to the carpet.
Parminter and his affected voice, suggesting that he came out of the great world to this little supper party, really without any sense of condescension at all, and the behavior of Walter Hine, who, to give himself courage, gulped down his champagne it was all horribly familiar. Her one consolation was her father.
It was that which had struck at her influence over Walter Hine. It was to introduce this drug that Archie Parminter had been brought down from London and the West End clubs. "It's drunk a good deal in a quiet way," Archie had said, as he made a pretence himself to drink it. "You leave such drugs to the aristocracy, Walter," Garratt Skinner had chimed in. "Just a taste if you like. But go gently."
And you don't know how many there were nor how many there should be there, now? As a matter of fact, there are twenty-seven rings there you can't say that is the right number?" "No," answered Zillah, "and my grandfather couldn't have said, either. A ring might be dropped into that tray or a ring taken out. They are all old rings." "But valuable?" suggested Mr. Parminter. "Some yes.
Sylvia was confronted with a youth who reddened under her greeting and awkwardly held out a damp coarse hand, a poor creature with an insipid face, coarse hair, and manner of great discomfort. He was as tall as Parminter, but wore his good clothes with Sunday air, and having been introduced to Sylvia could find no word to say to her.
He was so clearly head and shoulders above his associates, that she wondered at their presence in his house. Yet he seemed quite content, and in a most genial mood. "You sit here, Sylvia, my dear," he said, pointing to a chair. "Wallie" this to the youth Hine "sit beside my daughter and keep her amused. Barstow, you on the other side; Parminter next to me."
Then he turned to Zillah with another set of questions. "How long have you known the last witness Andrew Lauriston?" he enquired. "Since one day last week," replied Zillah. She had flushed at the mention of Lauriston's name, and Mr. Parminter was quick to see it. "How did you get to know him?" he continued. "By his coming to the shop on business." "To pawn his watch, I believe?" "Yes."
"Are they of the same sort, the same class, of rings as those in the tray?" "Yes," admitted Zillah. "Something the same." "What is the value of those rings separately?" enquired Mr. Parminter. "Please give us your professional opinion." Zillah bent over the two rings for a while, turning them about. "This is worth about thirty, and that about fifty pounds," she replied at last.
"Try again, old fellow," said Barstow, eagerly, bending down toward Hine with a horrid smile upon his face, a smile which tried to conceal an intense exasperation, an intense desire to strike. Again Parminter leaned over the chair, again he took Wallie Hine's hand and guided the pen, very carefully lifting it from the paper at the end of an initial or a word, and spacing the letters.
Word Of The Day