'
I wonder what Lord Lansdowne would say if Spenser Hale showed an equal
familiarity with his private papers! But now that we have returned to
our good friend Hale, we must not keep him waiting any longer.
* * * * *
I well remember the November day when I first heard of the Summertrees
case, because there hung over London a fog so thick that two or three
times I lost my way, and no cab was to be had at any price. The few
cabmen then in the streets were leading their animals slowly along,
making for their stables. It was one of those depressing London days
which filled me with ennui and a yearning for my own clear city of
Paris, where, if we are ever visited by a slight mist, it is at least
clean, white vapour, and not this horrible London mixture saturated
with suffocating carbon. The fog was too thick for any passer to read
the contents bills of the newspapers plastered on the pavement, and as
there were probably no races that day the newsboys were shouting what
they considered the next most important event--the election of an
American President. I bought a paper and thrust it into my pocket. It
was late when I reached my flat, and, after dining there, which was an
unusual thing for me to do, I put on my slippers, took an easy-chair
before the fire, and began to read my evening journal.
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