John,
familiarly inviting the magistrate to sit down on a couch.
"I have come in the matter of this Margari," said Monori, holding
himself very stiffly and fixing his eyes sharply on Mr. John. "Since our
conversation of this morning, the circumstance has come to my knowledge
that one of my colleagues in the county of Arad has succeeded in finding
the long-lost Coloman Lapussa."
At these words Mr. John began to smooth out the ends of his mustache and
chew them attentively.
"The young man confesses to having forged the bill, but asserts that it
was Margari who led him to do so, and that the bill signed by him was
originally for forty florins only, so that undoubtedly somebody else
must have turned it into 40,000."
Mr. John coughed very much at these words,--no doubt the bit of mustache
which he had bit off stuck in his throat.
"This is a very ticklish circumstance, I must confess," continued
Monori, "for although the young man's offence has thereby been
considerably lightened, yet the burden of the charge has now been
shifted to other shoulders hitherto quite free from suspicion. No doubt,
he being a minor, under strict control, did what he did as a mere
schoolboy frolic, but this Margari and an unknown somebody else will
find it not quite such a laughing matter."
Mr. John's mustache was by this time not enough for him, he began
nibbling his nails as well.
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