, &c.
There was only a sentence or two more, referring in the same strain to
other matters of business, of which, in the way of litigation, he seemed
to have no lack, and the letter ended.
'I'll go direct to London and see these people, and thence to Florence.
Gaetano Meloni--he may be living--who knows? He will remember the priest
who confessed him. A present to a religious house may procure--in a
matter of justice, and where none can be prejudiced, for the case is
very special--a dispensation, if he be the very Charles Archer--and he
may--why not?--have disclosed all on his death-bed. First, I shall see
Mr. Dangerfield--then those attorneys; and next make search in Florence;
and, with the aid of whatever I can glean there, and from Irons,
commence in England the intensest scrutiny to which a case was ever yet
subjected.'
Had it not been so late when he found this letter on his return, he
would have gone direct with it to the Brass Castle; but that being quite
out of the question, he read it again and again. It is wonderful how
often a man will spell over and over the same commonplace syllables, if
they happen to touch a subject vitally concerning himself, and what
theories and speculations he will build upon the accidental turn of a
phrase, or the careless dash of a pen.
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