To-morrow,--for today my time is all taken up,--we will
write down your deposition together if you like. I have nothing more to
say, I believe, except to ask you for the letters in your possession,
and which are indispensable to me."
"Within an hour, sir, you shall have them," replied Noel. And
he retired, after having warmly expressed his gratitude to the
investigating magistrate.
Had he been less preoccupied, the advocate might have perceived at the
end of the gallery old Tabaret, who had just arrived, eager and happy,
like a bearer of great news as he was.
His cab had scarcely stopped at the gate of the Palais de Justice
before he was in the courtyard and rushing towards the porch. To see him
jumping more nimbly than a fifth-rate lawyer's clerk up the steep flight
of stairs leading to the magistrate's office, one would never have
believed that he was many years on the shady side of fifty. Even he
himself had forgotten it. He did not remember how he had passed the
night; he had never before felt so fresh, so agile, in such spirits; he
seemed to have springs of steel in his limbs.
He burst like a cannon-shot into the magistrate's office, knocking up
against the methodical clerk in the rudest of ways, without even asking
his pardon.
Pages:
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302