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I suppose it’s hard to remember a little romantic idyll when you’ve just come
on top of a tragedy.
According to Dr Valentine’s testimony, poor Druce had
actually died just about half past four. Otherwise he was done; he’d lost his
police job; he was beggared at Monte Carlo. The master who followed the dog
shared the excitement if not the enthusiasm.
But as a fact, it will make very
little difference. Besides, he couldn’t be certain the old man’s money had
passed to him, and as a fact it hadn’t. But as these were out walking during
the whole period of the tragedy, they had no evidence to give. There was one of
them just behind Druce’s back as he sat in his chair up against the wall.
Now I
know you’re awfully clever, and nobody of sense sneers at cleverness. If you’ve
really come to the end, where in the world do you begin?
He might feel the
tragic irony of it; it might shake his soul, like any other tragic trifle. We
didn’t know what it was then; but we knew afterwards. It looked like the
parable of a man not letting his right hand know what his left hand did. He who
would be a tower must not fear to be a toppling tower. But as these were out
walking during the whole period of the tragedy, they had no evidence to
give.
Can you guess how such a man at such a moment would read such a signal?
If he had really known the money would come to him, I seriously believe he
wouldn’t have done it. We didn’t know what it was then; but we knew
afterwards.
And another when you said that Druce wore a white coat.
Now I know
you’re awfully clever, and nobody of sense sneers at cleverness.
If he left it
anywhere, it would be found and probably traced. Never have I seen two people
looking in their own way more respectably radiant and cheerful.
You wouldn’t
listen then; you were all for private vengeance then.
People have a panic like
that when they are frightened, not of tragic ironies, but of teeth.
People
readily swallow the untested claims of this, that, or the other. People readily
swallow the untested claims of this, that, or the other.
Take this case: a dog
barks at a man and a man runs away from a dog. Very well then, if Daniel Doom
has got his deserts, Brander Merton has got his deserts.
Very well then, if
Daniel Doom has got his deserts, Brander Merton has got his deserts.
I went
with his cousins, two young officers from India, and our conversation was
trivial enough.
Animals are very literal; they live in a world of truisms. His
pin, like himself, was at once showy and old - fashioned.
She gave an ordinary
involuntary cry, and yet you heard it on the shore.
Can you guess how such a
man at such a moment would read such a signal?
He filled the funeral with all
the snap and zip of the brightest sporting event.
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