And now would you do me the honour
to examine the original documents I have brought with me as exhibits in
corroboration of my statements--though I would mention," he quickly
added, perceiving that Madame Langai had greedily clutched hold of them,
"that among those documents there are sundry by no means suited for a
lady's perusal."
"When I come across any such I will pass them over," said she. Of course
these were the very passages she proceeded to search for straight away.
Meanwhile Mr. Demetrius also had drawn a packet of papers from
underneath the cushions of his sofa and handed them to Mr. Sipos.
"Then you do not advise me to give Henrietta to Baron Hatszegi to wife?
Good! And now, perhaps, while we run through the exhibits and schedules,
perhaps you'll be so good as to cast your eye over these papers. I don't
think they will bore you."
These documents, by the way, were the Latin documents discovered by Mr.
Margari--_in natura_.
Mr. John was marching pettishly up and down the room, and Madame Langai
was reading her documents with the greatest attention so that nobody
observed the surprise, the confusion reflected in the countenance of the
lawyer as he looked through the fatal Latin manuscripts. He kept shaking
his head and twisting his moustache right and left, fidgeted in his
armchair, and the beads of perspiration which stood out on his forehead
gave him enough to do to wipe them away with his pocket-handkerchief; at
last he had read the papers, and then he laid the whole bundle on the
table and stared silently before him like one whose reason for the
moment had no counsel to give him.
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