Here I found two doors facing me, and
foresaw the possibility of error; but I was relieved from the
burden of choosing by the sudden appearance at one of them of
Bareilles himself. The place was lit only by an oil lamp, and,
for a reason best known to himself, he did not look directly at
me, but stood with his head half-turned as he said,
"Well, Martin, is it done?"
I heard the dicers hold their hands to catch the answer, and in
the silence a bottle in some unsteady hand clinked against a
glass. Through the half-open door behind him it was possible to
see a long table, laid and glittering with steel and plate; and
all seemed to wait.
Parabere broke the spell. "We are late!" he said in a ringing
voice, which startled the governor as if it had been the voice of
doom. "But we could not have found you better prepared, it
seems. Do you always sup as late as this?"
For a moment the villain could not speak, but leaned against the
doorpost, with his cheeks gone white and his jaw fallen, the most
pitiable spectacle to be conceived.
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